THE    BI  BLE; 

ABRAHAM  SND  THE  HEBREWS  IN  EGY. 


u 


THE  BIBLE: 


ANALYZED,  TKANSLATED  AND  ACCOMPANIED  WITIJ 


CRITICAL  STUDIES, 


PUBLISHED    IN     PAKTS     OF     BOOKS,    SINGLE   BOOKS    AND    COLLECTIONS 
OF   BOOKS,    BY 


KEV.    LEICESTER    A.    SAWYER. 


ABRAHAM.     GEN.    12:    1—25:    11. 


WHITESBOBO,  N.  Y. 

L.    A.    SAWYEB. 

1884. 

u 


SC 


Entered  aocording  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1884, 

Br  Kev.  L.  A.  SAWYER, 

in  the  Library  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


T.  J.  GRIFFITHS,  PRINTER,  UTlCA. 


CONTENTS. 


I.    ABRAHAM. 

PAGE 

1.  Abram  migrates  from  Syria  to  Palestine,  receives  from 

Jeve  oovenants  I.  and  II. ,  goes  to  Egypt  and  has  trou- 
ble there  on  account  of  his  wife 5 

2.  He  returns  to  Palestine,  is  left  by  Lot,  and  receives  cov- 

enant III.  from  Jeve 7 

3.  He  fights  successfully  the  king  of  Shinar  and  his  allies 

and  is  blessed  by  Melchisedec 9 

4.  He  receives  covenant  IV.  from  the  word  of  Jeve 11 

5.  He  has  Ishmael  by  Hagar;  Hagar's  flight  and  return.  ...  13 

6.  Abram  receives  covenant  V.  from  Shaddi,  and  is  called 

Abraham 15 

7.  He  is  visited  by  Jeve  and  two  other  celestials,  and  gives 

them  an  ample  dinner 17 

f8.  The  two  accompanying  celestials  visit  Lot;  he  gives  them 
an  ample  supper;  Sodom  is  destroyed,  and  Lot  and  his 
two  daughters  saved;  dishonorable  parentage  of  Moab 

and  Ammon 21 

9.  Abraham  goes  to  Gerar  and  has  trouble  there  about  his 
wife 25 

10.  Abraham  has  Isaac  by  Sarah ;  he  banishes  Ishmael  and 

his  mother 27 

11.  Abraham  makes  a  covenant  with  the  king  of  Gerar  at  his 

request 29 

12.  Family  of  Nahor 32 


IV  CONTENTS. 

13.  Sarah  dies  and  Abraham  buys  a  field  for  a  burying  place,     32 
1-1.  Abraham  obtains  a  wife  for  Isaac  from  S3rria,  of  his  kin- 
dred      34 

15.  He  marries  Keture,  has  six  sons  by  her,  makes  provision 

for  them  and  dies 41 

II.    CRITICAL    STUDIES. 

1.  Character  of   the  book  of   the  patriarchs.  Gen.  12:  1  — 

Ex.  2:  22 42 

(1).  Arithmetical  proof 46 

(2).  Genealogical  proof 48 

(3).  Theological  proof 49 

2.  The  Abrahamic  covenants 51 

3.  History  of  the  Hebrews  in  their  patriarchal  period 61 

4.  History  of  Egypt  as  reported  from  Manetho  by  Julius  Af- 

ricanus,  bishop  of  Nicopolis  in  Palestine,  in  330  A.  D .  .     71 


THE  HEBREW  PATRIARCHS,  GEN.12: 1-EX.  4=  31 


Analysis — 1,  Abraham,  100  years;  2,  Isaac,  105 
years ;  3,  Jacob,  27  years  ;  4,  Levi,  56  years  ;  5,  Ko- 
hath,  71  years  ;  Amram,  71  years;  total,  430  years. 


1.  ABRAHAM,  100  YEARS. 

CHAPTER  I.     12:   1—20. 

Covenants  I  and  II ;  Abrarn  goes  with  Lot  to  Pal- 
estine, thence  to  Egypt,  has  trouble  about  his  wife 
and  returns  to  Palestine. 

12  :  1.  Jeve  said  to  Abrarn :  Go  out  from  your 
land,  and  kindred,  and  from  your  father's  house,  to 
the  land  that  I  will  show  you  ; 

2.  And  I  will  make  you  a  great  nation  and  bless 
you,  and  make  your  name  great,  and  it  shall  be  a 
blessing  ; 

3.  And  I  will  bless  him  that  blesses  you,  and  curse 
him  that  curses  you ;  and  in  you  shall  all  the  families 
of  the  earth  be  blessed. 

4.  And  Abrarn  went  as  Jeve  commanded  him, 
and  Lot  went  with  him. 

5.  And  Abrarn  was  75  years  old  when  he  went 
from  Haran ; 


6  COVENANTS   I.    AND   II. 

6.  And  he  took  Sari  his  wife,  and  Lot  his  brother's 
son,  and  all  their  goods  they  had  acquired  and  the 
souls  [slaves]  they  had  gained  in  Haran,  and  went  to 
go  to  Palestine  ;  and  they  came  to  Palestine. 

7.  And  Abram  passed  through  it  to  the  place  of 
Shechem,  to  the  oak  of  the  teacher,  and  the  Canaanite 
was  then  in  the  land. 

8.  And  Jeve  appeared  to  Abram  and  said,  I  will 
give  this  land  to  your  seed  ;  and  he  built  an  altar  for 
Jeve  that  appeared  to  him. 

9.  And  he  removed  from  there  to  a  mountain  east 
of  Bethel,  and  pitched  a  tent,  with  Bethel  on  the  west, 
and  Ai  on  the  east,  and  he  built  there  an  altar  for 
Jeve,  and  called  on  the  name  of  Jeve. 

9.  And  Abram  went  further  south. 

10.  And  there  was  a  famine  in  the  land,  and  he 
went  down  to  Egypt  to  sojourn  there,  for  the  famine 
was  severe  in  the  land. 

11.  And  it  came  to  pass  when  he  was  about  to  enter 
Egypt,  that  he  said  to  Sari  his  wife :  Behold  now,  I 
know  that  you  are  a  woman  of  fair  appearance, 

12.  And  it  will  come  to  pass,  when  the  Egyptians 
see  you,  that  they  will  say  :  This  is  his  wife  :  and  they 
will  kill  me,  and  save  you. alive; 

13.  Say,  I  pray  you,  that  you  are  my  sister,  that  it 
may  be  well  with  me,  because  of  you,  that  my  life  may 
be  spared. 

14.  And  it  came  to  pass  when  Abram  went  to 
Egypt,  that  the  Egyptians  saw  the  woman,  that  she 
was  very  fair. 

15.  And  Pharoe's  princes  saw  her  and  praised  he  r 


ABRAM   RETURNS   TO   PALESTINE.  7 

to  Pharoe ;  and   the  woman    was   taken    to    Pharoe's 
house. 

16.  And  it  was  well  with  Abram  because  of  her; 
and  he  had  sheep,  cattle,  asses,  men  servants,  women 
servants,  she  asses  and  camels. 

17.  And  Jeve  smote  Pharoe  and  his  house  with 
great  plagues,  because  of  Sari,  Abram's  wife. 

18.  And  Pharoe  called  Abram  and  said  :  What  is 
this  that  you  did  to  me  ?  Why  did  you  not  tell  me 
that  she  was  your  wife  ? ' 

19.  Why  did  you  say  :  She  is  my  sister,  that  I 
might  take  her  to  me  for  a  wife  ?  and  now  behold 
your  wife  ,  take  her  and  go. 

20.  And  Pharoe  commanded  men  concerning  him 
and  sent  him  away,  and  his  wife,  and  all  that  he  had. 


CHAPTER  II.     13  :  1—18. 

Abram  returns  to  Palestine ;  he  is  left  by  Lot  and  re~ 
ceives  covenant  III.     13  :  1 — 18. 

13  :  1.  And  Abram  went  up  from  Egypt  with  his 
wife  and  all  that  he  had  i  and  Lot  went  with  him,  to 
the  south  [of  Palestine,] 

2.  And  Abram  was  very  rich  in  cattle,  silver  and 
gold. 

3.  And  he  went  in  his  removals  from  the  south  to 
Bethel,  the  place  where  his  tent  was  at  first,  between 
Bethel  and  Ai, 

4.  To  the  place  of  the  altar  that  he  made  there  at 
first,  and  there  Abram  called  on  the  name  of  Jeve. 


8  ABRAM    RETURNS   TO   PALESTINE. 

5.  And  Lot  also,  who  went  with  Abram,  had  flocks, 
herds  and  tents. 

6.  And  the  land  could  not  bear  them  to  live  to- 
gether, for  their  wealth  was  great,  and  they  could  not 
live  together. 

7.  And  there  was  strife  between  the  herd  men  of 
Abram  and  the  herdmen  of  Lot ;  and  the  Canaanite 
and  PerizEite  then  dwelt  in  the  land. 

8.  And  Abram  said  to  Lot :  Let  there  be  no  strife, 
I  pray  you,  between  me  and  you,  nor  between  my 
herdmen  and  your  herdmen,  for  we  are  brothers. 

9.  Is  not  all  the  land  before  you  ?  Separate  your- 
self now  from  me ;  if  you  go  to  the  left,  I  will  go  to 
the  right ;  and  if  you  go  to  the  right,  I  will  go  to  the 
left. 

10.  And  Lot  lifted  up  his  eyes,  and  saw  all  the 
tract  of  the  Jordan,  that  it  was  well  watered  before 
Jeve  destroyed  Sodom  and  Gomore,  like  a  garden  of 
Jeve,  like  the  land  of  Egypt,  as  you  go  to  Zur  [Zuar.] 

11.  And  Lot  chose  the  tract  of  the  Jordan,  and 
moved  east,  and  they  separated  from  each  other. 

12.  And  Abram  dwelt  in  Palestine,  and  Lot  in  the 
tract  [of  the  Jordan],  and  pitched  his  tent  in  Sodom. 

13.  And  the  men  of  Sodom  were  wicked  and  sinned 
greatly  against  Jeve. 

14.  Jeve  said  to  Abram  after  Lot  separated  from 
him  ;  Lift  up  your  eyes  now  and  see  from  the  place 
where  you  are,  north,  south,  east  and  west, 

15.  For  all  the  land  which  you  see  will  I  give  you 
and  your  seed  forever. 

16.  And  I  will  make  your  seed  like  the  dusts  of  the 


ABEAM   FIGHTS   SUCCESSFULLY.  V 

earth.     If  a  man  can  number  the  dusts  of  the  earth, 
then  shall  your  seed  be  numbered, 

17.  Rise  and  go  about  the  land,  through  its  length 
and  breadth  ;  for  I  will  give  it  to  you. 

18.  And  Abram  moved  his  tent  and  went  and  dwelt 
in  the  oaks  of  Mamra,  which  were  in  Hebron,  and 
built  an  altar  to  Jeve. 

CHAPTER  III.     14:  1—29. 

Abram  fights  successfully,  and  is  blessed  by  Melchisedec. 

14:  1.  And  it  came  to  pass  in  the  days  of  Amra- 
phal  king  of  Shinar,  Arioch  king  of  Allasar,  Kedor- 
lumer  king  of  Elam,  and  Tidal  king  of  Goim, 

2.  That  they  made  war  on  Bera  king  of  Sodom, 
Birsha  king  of  Gomore,  Senab  king  of  Adme,  Shem- 
abar  king  of  Zeboim,  and  the  king  of  Bela,  which  is 
Zur. 

3.  All  these  kings  formed  an  alliance  in  the  vale  of 
Siddim,  wThich  was  by  the  salt  sea. 

4.  Twelve  years  they  served  Kedorlumer  ;  in  the 
thirteenth  year  they  rebelled  ; 

5.  And  in  the  fourteenth  year  came  Kedorlumer 
and  the  kings  with  him,  and  smote  the  Rephaim  in 
Ashteroth  Karnim,  the  Zuzim  in  Ham,  the  Emim  in 
the  plain  of  Kerithim, 

6.  And  the  Horites  in  their  mount  Seir,  even  to 
Ail  Paran,  which  was  before  the  wilderness. 

7.  And  they  returned  and  came  to  Ain  Mishpat, 
which  was  Kadesh,  and  smote  all  the  country  of  the 
Amalekites,  and  also  the  Amorites  who  dwelt  in  Haz- 
zon-tamar. 


10  ABEAM   FIGHTS  SUCCESSFULLY. 

8.  And  the  kings  of  Sodom,  Gomore,  Zeboim  and 
Bela,  which  is  Zur,  went  uut  and  set  themselves  in 
battle  array  in  the  vale  of  Siddim, 

9.  Against  Kedorlumer  king  of  Elam,  Tidal  king 
of  Goim,  Amraphal  king  of  Shinar,  and  Arioch  king 
of  Ellasar,  four  kings  against  five. 

10.  And  the  vale  of  Siddim  was  full  of  pits  of  bi- 
tumen ;  and  the  kings  of  Sodom  and  Gomore  fled  and 
fell  there,  and  the  rest  fled  to  the  mountain. 

11.  And  they  took  all  the  goods  of  Sodom  and  Go- 
more,  and  all  their  provisions,  and  went  away ; 

12.  And  they  took  Lot,  Abram's  brother,  and  his 
goods ;  for  he  dwelt  in  Sodom, 

18.  And  one  that  escaped,  came  and  told  Abram 
the  Hebrew  ;  and  he  dwelt  in  the  oaks  of  Mamra  the 
Amorite,  brother  of  Ashcol  and  Aner,  who  were  in 
covenant  with  him. 

14.  When  Abram  heard  that  his  brother  was  taken 
captive,  he  led  out  his  trained  men,  those  born  in  his 
house,  three  hundred  and  eighteen,  and  pursued  the 
enemy  to  Dan  ; 

15.  And  he  divided  his  troops  that  night,  and  his 
servants  smote  them,  and  pursued  them  to  Hobe,  west 
of  Damascus. 

16.  And  he  recovered  all  the  goods,  and  brought 
back  Lot  and  his  goods,  and  the  women,  and  the  peo- 
ple. 

17.  And  the  king  of  Sodom  went  out  to  meet  him 
after  his  return  from  smiting  Kedorlumer,  and  the 
kings  that  were  with  him,  to  the  valley  of  Sheve, 
which  is  the  king's  vale  [Hezekiah's.] 

18.  And  Meichisedec   king  of  Salem,  brought  out 


ABEAM   RECEIVES   COVENANT   IV.  11 

bread  and  wine  ;  and  he  was  a  priest  of  Al  Olion,  [the 
god  Olion.] 

19.  And  he  blessed  him  and  said :  Blessed  be 
Abram  of  Al  Olion,  possessor  of  heaven  and  earth, 

20.  And  blessed  be  Al  Olion,  who  gave  your  ene- 
mies into  your  hand  j  and  he  gave  him  a  tenth  of  all. 

21.  And  the  king  of  Sodom  said  to  Abram,  Give 
me  the  souls,  and  take  the  goods  for  yourself. 

22.  And  Abram  said  to  the  king  of  Sodom,  I  lifted 
my  hand  to  Jeve  Al  Olion,  possessor  of  heaven  and 
earth, 

23.  That  I  will  not  take  a  thing  that  is  yours,  from 
a  thread  to  a  shoe-string,  lest  you  should  say,  I  made 
Abram  rich  ; 

24.  Except  only  what  the  young  men  ate,  and  the 
portion  of  the  men  that  went  with  me,  Aner,  Ashcol 
and  Mamra  ;  let  them  take  their  portions. 

CHAPTER  IV.    15 :  1—20. 

Abram  receives  covenant  IV.,  sealed  with  sacrifices. 

15 :  1.  After  these  things  came  the  Word  of  Jeve 
in  a  vision,  saying  :  Fear  not,  Abram  ;  I  am  your 
shield,  and  your  very  great  reward, 

2.  And  Abram  said:  Master  Jeve,  what  will  you 
give  me,  when  I  go  childless  and  the  steward  of  my 
house  is  this  Eleazar  of  Damascus  ? 

3.  And  Abram  said  :  Behold,  you  have  given  me 
no  seed ;  and  behold,  a  son  of  my  house  will  be  my 
heir. 

4.  And  behold,  the  Word  of  Jeve  came  to  him  say- 


12  ABRAM   RECEIVES    COVENANT   IV. 

ing :  This  [man]  shall  not  be   your  heir ;  but  one  to 
come  from  your  loins  shall  be  your  heir. 

5.  And  he  led  him  out  and  said  :  Look  now  at  the 
heaveus  and  count  the  stars  if  you  can  ;  and  he  said  to 
him,  So  shall  your  seed  be. 

6.  And  he  believed  Jeve,  and  he  counted  it  to  him 
for  righteousness. 

7.  And  he  said  to  him,  I  am  Jeve,  who  brought 
you  from  Ur  of  the  Chaldeans,  to  give  you  this  land 
for  a  possession. 

8.  And  he  said,  Master  Jeve,  how  shall  I  know 
that  I  shall  possess  it  ? 

9.  And  he  said  to  him :  Take  for  me  a  heifer  and 
ram,  each  three  years  old,  a  turtle  dove,  and  a  young 
pigeon; 

10.  And  he  took  all  these,  and  divided  them  in  the 
middle,  and  put  one  part  against  another,  but  divided 
not  the  birds. 

11.  And  birds  of  prey  came  down  on  the  carcasses, 
and  Abram  drove  them  away. 

12.  And  when  the  sun  set,  a  deep  sleep  fell  on 
Abram,  and  behold  a  terror  of  great  darkness  fell  on 
him, 

13.  And  Jeve  said  to  Abram,  Know  surely  that 
your  seed  shall  be  a  stranger  in  a  land  not  theirs  ;  and 
they  shall  cause  them  to  serve,  and  afflict  them  four 
hundred  years. 

14.  Then  I  will  judge  the  nation  that  they  shall 
serve,  and  afterwards  they  shall  come  forth  with  great 
riches. 

15.  But  you  shall  come  to  your  fathers  in  peace, 
and  be  buried  in  a  good  old  age  ; 


ABRAM   HAS   ISHMAEL   BY   HAGAR.  13 

16.  And  in  the  fourth  generation  they  shall  return 
hither,  for  the  iniquity  of  the  Amorites  is  not  yet  full. 

17.  And  it  came  to  pass  when  the  sun  went  down 
that  there  was  darkness  ;  and  behold,  there  was  a 
smoking  furnace,  and  burning  lamp,  that  passed  be* 
tween  these  pieces. 

18.  On  that  day  Jeve  made  a  covenant  with  Abram, 
saying :  I  will  give  this  land  to  your  seed,  from  the 
river  of  Egypt  to  the  great  river  Euphrates  ; 

19.  The  Kenites,  Kenizites,  Cadmonites, 

20.  Hittites,  Perizites,  Eephaim, 

21.  Amorites,  Canaanites,  Girgashites  and  Jebusites, 

CHAPTER  V.     16:  1—16. 

Abram  has  Ishmael  by  Hagar ;   Story  of  Hagar. 

16  :  1.  And  Sari,  Abram's  wdfe,  bore  him  no  chil- 
dren, and  the  had  an  Egyptian  maid-servant,  whose 
name  was  Hagar. 

2.  And  Sari  said  to  Abram  :  Behold  now,  Jeve  has 
restrained  me  from  bearing  ;  go  in,  I  pray  you,  to  my 
maid-servant  ;  perhaps  I  may  be  built  up  from  her. 
And  Abram  heard  to  Sari. 

3.  And  Sari,  Abram's  wife,  took  Hagar,  her  Egyp- 
tian maid-servant,  at  the  end  of  ten  years  of  Abram's 
dwelling  in  Palestine,  and  gave  her  to  Abram,  her 
husband,  to  be  his  wife. 

4.  And  he  went  in  to  Hagar,  and  she  conceived  J 
and  when  she  saw  that  she  had  conceived,  she  de- 
spised her  mistress. 

5.  And  Sari  said  to  Abram,  My  wrong  be  on  you ; 


14  ABRAM   HAS   ISHMAEL   BY   HAGAR. 

I  put  my  maid-servant  in  your  bosom,  and  when  she 
saw  that  she  had  conceived,  she  despised  me ;  let  Jeve 
judge  between  me  and  you. 

6.  And  Abram  said  to  Sari:  Behold,  your  maid- 
servant is  in  your  hand ;  do  to  her  as  seems  good  in 
your  sight.  And  Sari  afflicted  her,  and  she  fled  from 
her  presence. 

7.  And  angel  Jeve  found  her  by  a  fountain  in  the 
wilderness,  by  the  fountain  in  the  way  to  Shur, 

8.  And  said :  Hagar,  Sari's  maid-servant,  whence 
did  you  come  ?  and  whither  are  you  going  ?  And  she 
said,  I  fled  from  the  presence  of  my  mistress  Sari. 

9.  &nd  angel  Jeve  said  to  her  :  Return  to  your 
mistress,  and  endure  hardship  under  her  hand. 

10.  And  angel  Jeve  said  to  her,  I  will  surely  mul* 
tiply  greatly  your  seed,  and  it  shall  not  be  numbered 
for  multitude. 

11.  And  angel  Jeve  said  to  her,  Behold,  you  are 
with  child,  and  you  shall  bear  a  son,  and  call  him 
Ishmael,  for  Jeve  heard  of  your  affliction  ; 

12.  And  he  shall  be  a  wild  man;  his  hand  shall  be 
against  every  man,  and  every  man's  hand  against  him; 
and  he  shall  dwell  in  the  presence  of  all  his  brothers. 

13.  And  she  called  on  the  name  of  Jeve,  who  spoke 
to  her,  saying,  You  are  an  Al  that  sees  me ;  for  she 
said  :  Have  I  not  here  seen  him  that  looks  after  me? 

14.  Therefore  they  called  the  well  Barlahiri,  [well 
of  him  that  saw  me].  Behold,  it  is  between  Kadesh 
and  Bered. 

15.  And  Hagar  bore  Abram  a  son  ;  and  Abram 
called  him  Ishmael. 


ABEAM   RECEIVES   COVENANT   V.  15 

16.  And  Abram  was  86  years  old  when  Hagar  bore 
Ishmael  to  him. 

CHAPTER  VI.    17:  1—27. 

Abram  receives  from  Shaddi  covenant  V.y  with  circum* 
cision. 

17:  1.  And  Abram  was  99  years  old,  and  Jeve  [a 
god]  appeared  and  said  to  him :  I  am  Al  Shaddi ; 
walk  before  me  and  be  perfect ; 

2.  And  I  will  make  my  covenant  between  me  and 
you,  and  multiply  you  exceedingly. 

3.  And  Abram  fell  on  his  face,  and  God  spoke  to 
him,  saying  : 

4.  Behold,  my  covenant  is  with  you,  and  you  shall 
be  a  father  of  a  multitude  of  nations. 

5.  You  shall  no  mote  be  called  Ab-ram  [high  fa- 
ther], but  Abraham  [father  of  a  multitude]  ;  for  I  will 
make  you  a  father  of  a  multitude  of  nations. 

6.  And  I  will  make  you  exceedingly  fruitful,  and 
make  nations  of  you ;  and  kings  shall  be  born  trom 
you. 

7.  I  will  establish  my  covenant  between  me  and 
you,  and  your  seed  after  you  in  their  generations,  for 
an  eternal  covenant,  to  be  a  god  to  you  and  to  your  seed 
after  you  ; 

8.  And  I  will  give  you  and  your  seed  after  you,  the 
land  of  your  sojourning,  all  Palestine,  for  an  eternal 
possession  ;  and  I  will  be  their  God. 

9.  And  God  said  to  Abraham :  You  shall  keep  my 
covenant,  you  and  your  seed  after  you,  for  their  gene- 
rations. 


16  ABRAM   RECEIVES   COVENANT   V. 

10.  This  is  the  covenant  which  you  shall  keep  be- 
tween me  and  you,  and  between  your  seed  after  you  ; 
every  male  of  you  shall  be  circumcised. 

11.  And  you  shall  circumcise  the  flesh  of  your  fore- 
skin, and  it  shall  be  a  sign  of  the  covenant  between 
me  and  you. 

12.  A  son  of  eight  days  shall  be  circumcised  among 
you,  every  male  of  your  generations,  the  child  of  the 
house,  the  purchase  of  money,  and  every  son  of  a 
stranger  that  is  not  from  your  seed,  shall  be  circum- 
cised. 

13.  The  child  of  your  house  shall  be  circumcised, 
and  the  purchase  of  money,  and  my  covenant  shall  be 
in  your  flesh,  for  an  eternal  covenant ; 

14.  And  the  uncircumcised  male  shall  be  cut  off 
from  his  people;  he  has  broken  my  covenant. 

15.  And  God  said  to  Abraham  :  Sari,  your  wife, 
shall  not  be  called  Sari  [my  princes],  but  Sarah 
[princess.] 

16.  And  I  will  bless  her,  and  give  you  a  son  from 
her;  and-  she  shall  be  [a  mother  of ]  nations,  and 
kings  of  peoples  shall  be  born  from  her. 

17.  And  Abraham  fell  on  his  face  and  laughed,  and 
said  in  his  heart :  Shall  a  son  be  born  to  one  a  hundred 
years  old  ?  and  shall  Sarah  bear  at  the  age  of  ninety 
years  ? 

18.  And  Abraham  said  to  the  god :  O  that  Ish- 
mael  may  live  before  you  ! 

19.  And  God  said  :  Sarah  your  wife  shall  surely 
bear  you  a  son,  and  you  shall  call  him  Isaac  [Laugh- 
ter], and  I  will  establish  my  covenant  with  him,  and 
with  his  seed  after  him,  for  an  eternal  covenant. 


JEVE  AND  OTHER  CELESTIALS  ENTERTAINED.     17 

20.  I  have  heard  you  also  for  Ishmael ;  behold,  I 
will  bless  and  multiply  him  ;  I  will  make  him  fruit- 
ful and  multiply  him  exceedingly;  he  shall  beget 
twelve  princes,  and  I  will  make  him  a  great  nation. 

21.  And  I  will  establish  my  covenant  with  Isaac, 
whom  Sarah  shall  bear  to  you,  in  due  time  the  next 
year. 

22.  And  he  ceased  to  speak  with  Abraham,  and  God 
ascended  from  before  him. 

23.  Then  Abraham  took  Ishmael  his  son,  and  all 
the  children  of  his  house,  and  the  purchase  of  his 
money,  every  male  among  the  men  of  his  house,  and 
circumcised  the  flesh  of  their  foreskin  in  that  same 
day,  as  God  commanded  him. 

24.  And  Abraham  was  ninety-nine  years  old, 

25.  And  Ishmael  his  son,  thirteen  years  old,  when 
he  circumcised  the  flesh  of  their  foreskin; 

26.  Abraham  and  Ishmael  his  son  were  circumcised 
on  that  same  day ; 

27.  And  all  the  men  of  his  house,  the  child  of  his 
house,  and  the  purchase  of  money  from  a  stranger, 
were  circumcised  with  him. 

CHAPTEE  VII.    18 :  1—33. 

Jeve  and  two  other  celestials  entertained ;  Jeve  again 
promises  Abraham  a  son  by  Sarah,  and  tells  him  of 
his  purpose  in  respect  to  Sodom;  Abraham  inter- 
cedes for  Sodom. 

18  :  1.  And  Jeve  appeared  to  him  in  the  oaks  of 
Mamra,  and  he  was  sitting  at  his  tent  door  in  the 
heat  of  the  day ; 


18     JEVE  AND  OTHER  CELESTIALS  ENTERTAINED. 

2.  And  he  lifted  up  his  eyes  and  looked,  and  be- 
hold three  men  stood  before  him ;  and  he  saw,  and 
ran  to  meet  them  from  the  tent  door,  and  bowed  him- 
self to  the  ground, 

3.  And  said,  Masters,  if  now  I  have  found  favor  in 
your  sight,  go  not,  I  pray  you,  by  your  servant ; 

4.  Let  now  a  little  water  be  brought,  and  do  you 
wash  your  feet,  and  rest  yourselves  under  the  tree. 

5.  I  will  bring  a  mouthful  of  bread ;  and  do  you  re- 
fresh yourselves,  and  then  you  shall  pass  on ;  because 
for  this  have  you  come  to  your  servant.  And  they 
said  :  Well,  do  as  you  have  said. 

6.  And  Abraham  hastened  to  the  tent  to  Sarah,  and 
said  :  Prepare  quickly  three  seahs  [36  quarts]  of  flour, 
knead  it  and  make  cakes. 

7.  And  Abraham  ran  to  the  herd  and  took  a  calf 
tender  and  good,  and  gave  it  to  the  boy,  and  he  has- 
tened to  dress  it. 

8.  And  he  took  butter  and  milk,  and  the  calf  which 
he  had  cooked,  and  set  food  before  them,  and  stood  by 
them  under  the  tree,  and  they  ate. 

9.  And  they  said  to  him  :  Where  is  Sarah  your  wife? 
And  he  said  :  Behold,  in  the  tent. 

10.  And  [Jeve]  said  :  I  will  surely  return  to  you  at 
the  time  for  a  life  [a  birth],  and  behold,  Sarah  your 
wife  shall  have  a  son.  And  Sarah  heard  at  the  tent 
door,  for  he  was  behind  it. 

11.  And  Abraham  and  Sarah  were  old,  and  it  had 
ceased  to  be  with  Sarah,  in  the  manner  of  women; 

12.  And  Sarah  laughed  within  herself,  saying,  After 
I  have  become  old,  shall  I  have  pleasure  still,  and  my 
master  is  old  ? 


JEVE  AND  OTHER  CELESTIALS  ENTERTAINED.     19 

13.  And  Jeve  said  :  Abraham,  why  is  this  ?  Sarah 
laughed,  saying :  Shall  I  really  bear  when  I  am  old  ? 

14.  Is  anything  too  wonderful  for  Jeve  ?  In  due 
time  I  will  return  to  you,  at  the  time  for  a  birth,  and 
Sarah  shall  have  a  son. 

15.  And  Sarah  lied,  saying :  I  did  not  laugh,  for 
she  was  afraid.  But  he  said  :  No,  you  certainly  did 
laugh. 

16.  And  the  men  rose  up  from  there  and  looked  to- 
ward Sodom ;  and  Abraham  went  with  them  to  see 
them  on  the  way. 

17.  And  Jeve  said  :  Shall  I  hide  this  thing  which  I 
do  from  Abraham  ? 

17.  Abraham  will  surely  be  a  great  and  strong  na- 
tion, and  all  nations  of  the  earth  will  be  blessed  in  him. 

19.  For  I  know  him,  that  he  will  command  his  sons 
and  his  house  after  him,  and  they  will  keep  the  way 
of  Jeve,  to  do  righteousness  and  judgment,  that  Jeve 
may  bring  on  Abraham  all  that  he  has  said  concern* 
ing  him. 

20.  And  Jeve  said  :  There  is  a  cry  of  distress  from 
Sodom  and  Gomore,  for  it  is  great,  and  of  their  sin, 
for  it  is  extremely  oppressive  ; 

21.  I  will  go  down  now  and  see  if  they  have  done 
entirely  accord iag  to  her  cry  that  has  come  to  me,  and 
if  not  I  will  know. 

22.  And  the  men  turned  from  them  and  went  to- 
ward Sodom  ;  but  Abraham  stood  yet  before  Jeve  ; 

23.  And  Abraham  came  near  and  said :  Will  you 
indeed^destroy  the  righteous  with  the  wicked  ? 

24.  Perhaps  there   are  fifty  righteous  men  in  the 


20     JEVE  AND  OTHER  CELESTIALS  ENTERTAINED. 

city  j  will  you  destroy,  and  not  spare  the  place  for 
fifty  righteous  men  that  are  in  it  ? 

25.  Far  be  it  from  you  to  do  according  to  this 
thing ;  to  kill  the  righteous  with  the  wicked,  and 
that  it  should  be  with  the  righteous  as  with  the 
wicked.    Will  not  the  judge  of  all  the  earth  do  right? 

26.  And  Jeve  said  :  If  I  find  fifty  righteous  men 
in  the  city,  I  will  spare  the  whole  place  for  their  sake. 

27.  And  Abraham  answered  and  said  :  Behold  now 
I  have  taken  it  on  me  to  speak  to  my  master,  though 

I  am  dust  and  ashes, 

28.  Perhaps  there  will  lack  five  of  the  fifty  right- 
eous men.  Will  you  for  the  lack  of  five  destroy  all 
the  city  ?  And  he  said  :  I  will  not  destroy  [the  city] 
if  I  find  there  forty-five. 

29.  And  he  spoke  to  him  yet  again,  and  said  :  Per- 
haps there  will  be  found  40?  And  he  said:  I  will 
not  destroy  fit]  for  40. 

30.  And  he  said :  Let  not  [my  master]  be  angry, 
and  I  will  speak  [further].  Perhaps  there  will  be 
found  there  thirty.  And  he  said  :  I  will  not  destroy 
it  if  I  find  thirty. 

31.  And  he  said :  Behold  now  I  have  taken  it 
on  me  to  speak  to  my  master,  perhaps  twenty  will  be 
found  there.  And  he  said  :  I  will  not  destroy  it  for 
twenty. 

32.  And  he  said  :  Let  not  [my  master]  be  angry, 
and  I  will  speak  this  once :  Perhaps  ten  will  be  found 
there.     And  he  said  :  I  will  not  destroy  it  for  ten. 

33.  And  Jeve  went  away  when  he  had  finished 
speaking  with  Abraham  ;  and  Abraham  returned  to 
his  place. 


TWO   ANGELS   VISIT   LOT.  21 

CHAPTER  VIII.     19:  1—38. 

The  two  angels  that  left  Abraham  visit  Lot,  and  are  en- 
tertained by  him  ;  vile  conduct  of  the  Sodomites  ;  the 
city  destroyed;  Lot  and  two  daughters  saved,  and 
their  subsequent  misdoings. 

19  :  1.  And  the  two  angels  came  to  Sodom  at  eve* 
ning ;  and  Lot  sat  in  the  gate  of  Sodom ;  and  Lot 
saw,  and  rose  up  to  meet  them,  and  bowed  his  face  to 
the  ground. 

2.  And  said :  See  here,  my  masters,  turn,  I  pray 
you,  to  the  house  of  your  servant,  and  lodge,  and  wash 
your  feet,  and  rise  early  and  go  on  your  way.  And 
they  said  :  No,  but  we  will  lodge  in  the  street  ; 

3.  But  he  urged  them  much,  and  they  went  with 
him ;  and  he  came  to  his  house,  and  made  them  a 
feast,  and  baked  unleavened  cakes,  and  they  ate. 

4.  They  had  not  yet  laid  down,  when  the  men  of 
the  city  surrounded  the  house,  young  and  old,  all  the 
people  from  the  extreme  [parts  of  the  city]. 

5.  And  they  called  to  Lot,  and  said  to  him  :  Where 
are  the  men  that  came  to  you  to-night  ?  Bring  them 
out  that  we  may  know  them, 

6.  And  Lot  went  out  of  the  door  to  them,  and  shut 
the  door  after  him, 

7.  And  said  :  Do  no  wrong,  brothers. 

8.  Behold  now  I  have  two  daughters,  who  have 
not  known  man  ;  them  will  I  bring  out  to  you,  and 
do  to  them  as  is  good  in  your  sight ;  only  to  these 
men  do  nothing ;  for  therefore  came  they  under  the 
shadow  of  my  roof. 

9.  But  they  said  :  Stand  back  ;  and  they  said  :  This 


22  TWO    ASGEffS    VISIT   LOT. 

man  came  to  sojourn,  and  now  he  will  be  a  judge  ;  we 
will  do  worse  to  you  than  to  them  ;  and  they  pressed 
Lot  exceedingly,  and  drew  near  to  break  clown  the 
door. 

10.  And  the  men  put  out  their  hands  and  took  Lot 
in  to  them  ; 

11.  And  smote  the  men  with  blindness,  from  the 
least  to  the  greatest  of  them,  and  they  strove  in  vain 
to  find  the  door. 

12.  And  the  men  said  to  Lot :  Whom  have  you 
here  ?  your  son-in-law,  sons  and  daughters  ?  all 
whom  you  have  in  the  city  bring  out  from  this  place, 

13.  For  their  cry  is  great  before  Jeve,  and  he  has 
sent  us  to  destroy  it. 

14.  And  Lot  went  out  and  spoke  to  his  sons-in-law, 
who  had  married  his  daughters,  and  said  :  Rise,  and 
come  out  of  this  place,  for  Jeve  will  destroy  the  city  ; 
and  he  was  in  the  sight  of  his  sons-in-law  as  one  that 
mocked. 

15.  And  when  the  morning  came,  the  angels  hast- 
ened Lot,  saying :  Rise,  take  your  wife  and  two 
daughters,  that  are  found  here,  lest  you  be  consumed 
in  the  iniquity  of  the  city. 

16.  And  while  he  lingered,  the  men  took  his  hand, 
and  his  wife's  hand,  and  the  hands  of  his  two  daugh- 
ters, in  the  kindness  of  Jeve  for  him,  and  brought  him 
out,  and  set  him  down  without  the  city. 

17.  And  it  came  to  pass,  when  they  had  brought 
them  out,  that  they  said  to  them  :  Escape  for  your 
lives,  look  not  behind  you,  nor  stay  in  all  the  plain, 
escape  to  the  mountain,  lest  you  be  destroyed. 

18.  And  Lot  said  to  them  ;  No,  masters  ; 


TWO   ANGELS   VISIT   LOT.  23 

19.  Behold  now  your  servant  has  found  favor  in 
your  sight,  and  you  have  dealt  very  kindly  with  me, 
to  save  my  life ;  I  can  not  escape  to  the  mountain, 
lest  evil  overtake  me  and  I  die ; 

20.  Behold  now  this  city  is  near  to  flee  to,  and  it  is 
small ;  let  me  escape  thither;  is  it  not  small  ?  and  my 
life  will  be  saved  ? 

21.  And  he  said  to  him  :  Behold  I  have  accepted 
you  in  this,  not  to  destroy  the  city  of  which  you 
speak. 

22.  Hasten  your  escape  thither,  for  I  can  do  no- 
thing till  you  have  gone  there ;  therefore  he  called 
the  name  of  the  place  Zur  [Zoar]. 

23.  The  sun  went  forth  on  the  earth,  and  Lot  went 
to  Zur. 

24.  And  Jeve  rained  on  Sodom  and  Gomore  brim- 
stone and  fire  from  Jeve  out  of  heaven  ; 

25.  And  overthrew  those  cities,  and  all  the  plain? 
and  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  cities,  and  that  which 
grew  on  the  ground. 

26.  And  his  wife  looked  back  from  behind  him, 
and  became  a  pillar  of  salt. 

27.  And  Abraham  rose  early  in  the  morning,  and 
[went]  to  the  place  where  he  stood  before  Jeve, 

28.  And  looked  towards  Sodom  and  Gomore,  and 
over  all  the  face  of  the  plain,  and  saw,  and  behold 
the  smoke  of  the  land  went  up  like  the  smoke  of  a 
furnace. 

29.  And  it  came  to  pass,  when  God  destroyed  the 
cities  of  the  plain,  that  he  remembered  Abraham,  and 
sent  Lot  from  the  midst  of  the  destruction  when  he 
destroyed  the  cities  in  which  he  dwelt. 


24  TWO  ANGELS   VISIT   LOT. 

30.  And  Lot  went  up  from  Zur,  and  dwelt  on  a 
mountain,  and  his  two  daughters  with  him  ;  for  he 
was  afraid  to  dwell  in  Zur,  and  he  and  his  two  daugh- 
ters dwelt  in  a  cave. 

31.  And  the  firstborn  said  to  the  younger :  Our 
father  is  an  old  man,  and  there  is  not  a  man  in  the 
land  to  come  in  to  us  after  the  manner  of  all  the 
earth  ; 

32.  Come,  let  us  make  our  father  ^rink  wine,  and 
we  will  lie  with  him,  and  preserve  seed  from  our 
father, 

33.  And  they  made  their  father  drink  wine  that 
night,  and  the  firstborn  came  and  slept  with  her  fa- 
ther, and  he  knew  not  when  she  lay  down  nor  when 
she  rose. 

34.  And  it  came  to  pass  on  the  next  day  that  the 
firstborn  said  to  the  younger:  Behold  I  lay  with  ray 
father  yesterday,  let  us  make  him  drink  wine  to-night 
also,  and  do  you  go  and  lie  with  him,  that  we  may 
save  seed  from  our  father. 

35.  And  they  made  their  lather  drink  wine  that 
night  also,  and  the  youngest  [daughter]  rose  and  lay 
with  him^  and  he  knew  not  when  she  lay  down,  nor 
when  she  rose. 

36.  And  the  two  daughters  of  Lot  conceived  by 
their  father, 

37.  And  the  firstborn  .bore  a  son,  and  called  him 
Moab.  He  is  the  father  of  Moab  to  this  day. 
[715  B.  C] 

38.  And  the  younger  also  bore  a  son,  and  she  called 
him  Ben-ammi ;  he  is  the  father  of  the  sons  of  Am- 
nion to  this  day. 


ABRAHAM   GOES   TO   GERAR.  25 

CHAPTER  IX,    20:1—18. 

Abraham  goes  to  Gerar,  and  has  trouble  there  on  ac- 
count of  his  wife. 

20  :  1.  Abraham  moved  from  there  south,  and 
dwelt  between  Kadesh  and  Shur,  and  sojourned  in 
Gerar. 

2.  And  Abraham  said  of  Sarah  :  She  is  my  sister  ; 
and  Abimelech,  king  of  Gerar,  sent  and  took  Sarah. 

3.  And  God  came  to  Abimelech  in  a  dream  by 
night,  and  said  to  him:  Behold  you  are  a  dead  man, 
because  of  the  woman  whom  you  have  taken  ;  for  she 
is  a  husband's  wife. 

4.  And  Abimelech  had  not  approached  her  ;  and 
he  said  :  Master,  will  you  destroy  a  righteous  nation  ? 

5.  Said  he  not  to  me :  She  is  my  sister  ?  and  also 
said  she  not :  He  is  my  brother  ?  In  the  integrity  of 
my  heart  and  in  the  innocency  of  my  hands  1  did 
this. 

6.  And  the  god  said  to  him  in  a  dream  :  I  know 
that  in  the  integrity  of  your  heart  you  did  this,  and  I 
held  you  back  from  sinning  against  me.  For  that 
reason  I  did  not  sutler  you  to  touch  her. 

7.  And  now  return  the  man's  wife,  for  he  is  a  pro- 
phet, and  will  pray  for  you,  and  you  shall  live  ;  but 
if  you  do  not  return  her,  know  that  you  shall  cer- 
tainly die,  and  all  that  belongs  to  you. 

8.  Then  Abimelech  rose  early  in  the  morning,  and 
called  all  his  servants,  and  told  all  these  things  in 
their  ears,  and  the  men  feared  greatly. 

9.  And  Abimelech  called  Abraham,  and  said  to 
him  :  What  have  you  done  to  us  ?    and  in  what  did  I 


26  ABRAHAM  GOES  TO  GERAR. 

sin  against  you,  that  you  brought   on    me  and  on  my 
kingdom  this  great  sin  ?     You  did  to  me  things  that  - 
should  not  be  done. 

10.  And  Abimelech  said  to  Abraham  :  What  did 
you  see,  that  you  did  this  thing  ? 

11.  And  Abraham  said :  I  said,  Surely  there  is  no 
fear  of  gods  in  this  place  ;  and  they  will  kill  me  be- 
cause of  my  wife. 

12.  And  really  also  she  is  my  sister  ;  she  is  the 
daughter  of  my  father,  but  not  of  my  mother,  and  she 
became  my  wife. 

13.  And  it  came  to  pass  when  gods  caused  me  to 
wander  from  my  father's  house,  that  I  said  to  her  : 
This  is  the  kindness  which  you  shall  do  me  in  every 
place  where  Ave  go ;  say  of  me  :    He  is  my  brother. 

14.  And  Abimelech  took  sheep,  cattle,  men  serv- 
ants and  maid  servants,  and  gave  [them]  to  Abraham, 
and  restored  to  him  Sarah  his  wife. 

15.  And  Abimelech  said :  Behold  my  land  is  be- 
fore you,  dwell  where  you  please. 

16.  And  he  said  to  Sarah  :  Behold  I  have  given 
your  brother  a  thousand  [shekels]  of  silver  [$600]  ; 
behold  he  shall  be  to  you  for  a  covering  of  the  eyes 
to  all  that  are  with  you,  and  to  all.  [Thus]  was  she 
reproved. 

17.  And  Abraham  prayed  to  the  God;  and  God 
healed  Abimelech,  his  wife,  and  his  maid  servants, 
and  they  bore  children  ; 

18.  For  Jeve  had  closed  every  womb  of  the  house 
of  Abimelech  because  of  Sarah,  Abraham's  wife. 


ISAAC   IS   BORN.  27 

CHAPTER  X.    21  :  1—21. 

Isaac  is  boim,  and  Hagar  and  Ishmael  are  banished. 

21  :  1.  And  Jeve  visited  Sarah,  and  did  to  her  as 
he  said ; 

2.  And  Sarah  conceived,  and  bore  a  son  to  Abra- 
ham in  his  old  age,  at  the  set  time,  as  God  said  to 
them. 

3.  And  Abraham  called  his  son,  whom  Sarah  bore 
to  him,  Isaac. 

4.  And  Abraham  circumcised  Isaac  when  he  was 
eight  days  old,  as  God  commanded  him. 

5.  And  Abraham  was  an  hundred  years  old  when 
Isaac  was  born  to  him. 

6.  And  Sarah  said :  God  has  made  me  laugh,  and 
every  one  that  hears  will  laugh  with  me. 

7.  And  she  said :  Who  would  have  told  Abraham 
that  Sarah  would  nurse  sons  ?  but  I  have  borne  a  son 
to  his  old  age. 

8.  And  the  child  grew,  and  was  weaned  ;  and  Abra- 
ham made  a  great  feast  on  the  day  that  Isaac  was 
weaned. 

9.  And  Sarah  saw  the  son  of  Hagar,  the  Egyptian, 
which  she  bore  to  Abraham,  mock  ; 

10.  And  she  said  to  Abraham  :  Cast  out  this  maid 
servant  and  her  son,  for  the  son  of  this  maid  servant 
shall  not  inherit  with  my  son  Isaac. 

11.  And  the  thing  was  evil  in  the  sight  of  Abra- 
ham, concerning  his  son. 

12.  And  God  said  to  Abraham :  Let  it  not  be  evil 


28  ISAAC   IS   BORN. 

in  your  sight  concerning  the  child,  nor  concerning 
your  maid  servant ;  in  all  that  Sarah  says  to  you,  hear 
to  her,  for  in  Isaac  shall  your  seed  be  called. 

13.  And  as  to  the  son  of  the  maid  servant,  I  will 
make  a  nation  also  of  him  because  he  is  your  son. 

14.  And  Abraham  rose  early  in  the  morning,  and 
took  bread  and  a  leather  bottle  of  water,  and  gave 
them  to  Hagar,  and  put  them  on  her  shoulder,  and 
the  child,  and  sent  her  away,  and  she  went  and  wan- 
dered in  the  wilderness  of  Barsheba. 

15.  And  the  water  was  used  in  the  bottle,  and  she 
cast  the  child  under  one  of  the  bushes, 

16.  And  went  and  sat  down  by  herself  at  the  dis- 
tance of  the  drawing  of  a  bow,  for  she  said  :  I  can  not 
see  the  child  die  ;  and  she  sat  down  before  [him],  and 
lifted  up  her  voice  and  wept. 

17.  And  God  heard  the  voice  of  the  boy ;  and  the 
angel  of  God  called  to  Hagar  out  of  heaven,  and  said 
to  her  :  What  is  the  matter  with  you,  Hagar  ?  Fear 
not ;  for  God  heard  the  voice  of  the  boy  where  he  is. 

18.  Rise,  take  the  boy,  and  hold  him  in  your  hand, 
for  I  will  make  of  him  a  great  nation. 

19.  And  God  opened  her  eyes,  and  she  saw  a  well 
of  water,  and  went  and  filled  the  bottle  with  water, 
and  gave  the  boy  drink. 

20.  And  God  was  with  the  boy,  and  he  grew,  and 
dwelt  in  the  wilderness,  and  was  a  great  archer. 

21.  And  he  dwelt  in  the  wilderness  of  Paran,  and 
his  mother  took  him  a  wife  from  the  land  of  Egypt. 


ABRAHAM  MAKES  A  COVENANT.        29 

CHAPTER  XI.    21  :  22—34. 

Abraham  makes  a  covenant  with  the  king  of  Gerar. 

21  :  22.  And  it  came  to  pass  at  that  time  that  Abi- 
melech  and  Phicol,  the  general  of  his  army,  spoke  to 
Abraham,  saying  :  God  is  with  you  in  all  that  you  do. 

23.  And  now  swear  to  me  by  God,  that  you  will 
not  deal  falsely  with  me,  nor  with  my  son,  nor  my 
son's  son.  According  to  the  kindness  which  I  have 
shown  you,  do  you  deal  with  me,  and  with  the  land 
in  which  you  have  sojourned. 

24.  And  Abraham  said  :  I  will  swear. 

25.  And  Abraham  reproved  Abimelech  because  of 
a  well  of  water  which  Abimelech's  servants  took  by 
force. 

26.  And  Abimelech  said  :  I  knew  not  who  did  this 
thing,  neither  did  you  tell  me,  nor  did  I  hear  of  it  till 
to-day. 

27.  And  Abraham  took  sheep  and  cattle  and  gave 
them  to  Abimelech,  and  they  made  a  covenant. 

28.  And  Abraham  set  apart  seven  ewe  lambs  of  the 
flock  ; 

29.  And  Abimelech  said  :  What  mean  these  seven 
ewe  lambs  that  you  have  set  apart  ? 

30.  And  he  said  :  Verily,  these  seven  ewe  lambs 
shall  you  take  from  my  hand,  that  it  may  be  for  a 
witness  that  I  dug  this  well. 

31.  Therefore  he  called  that  place,  because  they 
swore  there,  Barsheba. 

32.  And  Abimelech  and  Phicol  the  general  of  his 
army  rose,  and  returned  to  the  land  of  the  Philis- 
tines. 


30  GOD  TEMPTS   ABRAHAM. 

33.  And  he  planted  a  grove  in  Barsheba,  and  called 
there  on  the  name  of  Jeve,  the  Al  eternal. 

34.  And  Abraham  sojourned  in  the  land  of  the 
Philistines  many  days. 

CHAPTER  XII.     22  :  1—19. 

God  tempts  Abraham,  and  Jeve  gives  him  Covenant  VI. 

22  :  1.  And  it  came  to  pass  after  these  things,  that 
the  God  tempted  Abraham  ;  and  he  said  to  him,  Abra- 
ham :  and  he  said  :  Behold  me. 

2.  A.nd  he  said  :  Take  now  your  dear  son,  Isaac, 
whom  you  love,  and  go  to  the  land  of  Moriah,  and 
offer  him  there  for  a  burnt  offering  on  one  of  the 
mountains  of  which  I  will  tell  you. 

3.  And  Abraham  rose  early  in  the  morning,  and 
harnessed  his  ass,  and  took  two  of  his  servants  with 
him,  and  Isaac  his  son  ;  and  split  wood  for  the  sacri- 
fice, and  rose  and  went  to  the  place  cf  which  the  God 
told  him. 

4.  On  the  third  day  he  lifted  up  his  eyes,  and  saw 
the  place  afar  off. 

5.  And  Abraham  said  to  his  servants :  Stay  here 
with  the  ass,  and  I  and  the  boy  will  go  yonder  and 
worship,  and  return  to  you. 

6.  And  Abraham  took  the  wood  for  the  burnt  of» 
ferin^,  and  put  it  on  Isaac  his  son,  and  took  in  his 
hand  the  fire  aud  the  knife ;  and  the  two  went  to- 
gether. 

7.  And  Isaac  spoke  to  Abraham  his  father,  and 
said :  Behold  the  fire  and  the  wood,  and  where  is  the 
sheep  for  a  burnt  offering? 


GOD   TEMPTS   ABRAHAM.  31 

8.  And  Abraham  said,  God  will  provide  him  the 
sheep  for  a  burnt  offering,  my  son.  And  the  two 
went  on  together. 

9.  And  they  came  to  the  place  of  which  the  God 
told  him.  And  Abraham  built  there  an  altar,  and  ar- 
ranged the  wood,  and  bound  Isaac  his  son,  and  laid 
him  on  the  altar  on  the  wood. 

10.  And  Abraham  stretched  forth  his  hand,  and 
took  the  knife  to  kill  his  son. 

11.  And  angel  Jeve  called  to  him  from  heaven, 
and  said  :  Abraham,  A  braham,  and  he  said :  Be- 
hold me. 

12.  And  be  said :  Lay  not  your  hand  on  the  boy, 
nor  do  a  thing  to  him.  For  now  I  know  that  you 
fear  gods,  since  you  withheld  not  your  beloved  son 
from  me. 

13.  And  Abraham  lifted  up  his  eyes  and  saw  and 
behold  a  ram  was  behind  him  caught  in  a  thicket  by 
his  horns ;  and  Abraham  went  and  took  the  ram,  and 
offered  him  for  a  burnt  offering  instead  of  his  son. 

14.  And  Abraham  called  the  place  Jeve-jire  [Jeve 
will  provide],  and  it  is  said  to  [this]  day,  Jeve  will 
provide  on  the  mountain. 

15.  And  angel  Jeve  called  to  Abraham  a  second 
time  from  heaven, 

16.  And  said  to  him,  I  swore  by  myself,  says  Jeve, 
because  you  did  this,  and  withheld  not  your  son,  your 
much-loved  son, 

17.  That  I  will  surely  bless  you,  and  multiply  your 
seed  as  the  stars  of  heaven,  and  as  the  sands  on  the 
sea  shore ;  your  seed  shall  possess  the  gate  of  his  ene- 
mies, 


32  THE    FAMILY   OF    NAHOB. 

18.  And  in  your  seed  shall  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth  be  blessed,  because  you  obeyed  my  voice, 

19.  And  Abraham  returned  to  his  servants,  and 
they  arose  and  went  together  to  Barsheba. 

CHAPTER  XIII.    22:  20—24. 

The  family  of  Nahor.     22  :  20—24. 

22  :  20.  And  it  came  to  pass  after  these  things,  that 
it  was  told  Abraham,  saying :  Behold,  Milke  also  has 
borne  sons  to  your  brother  Nahor, 

21.  Uz  his  first  bom,  Buz  his  brother,  Kemual  fa- 
ther of  Aram  [Syria], 

22.  Chesed,  Hazo,  Pildash,  Idlaph  and  Bethuel. 

23.  And  Bethuel  begat  Rebecca.  Milke  bore  these 
eight  to  Xahor,  Abraham's  brother. 

24.  And  his  concubine,  whose  name  was  Reume, 
also  bore  him  Tebah,  Gaham,  Tahash  and  Moche. 

CHAPTER   XIV. 

Sarah    dies,  and  Abraham  buys  a  field  for  a  burying 
place.     23  :   1—20. 

23  :  1.  And  the  life  uf  Sarah  was  one  hundred  and 
twenty-seven  years. 

2.  And  Sarah  died  in  Kirith-arba,  which  is  Hebron 
in  Palestine.  And  Abraham  came  to  lament  for  Sarah 
and  to  mourn  for  her  ; 

3.  And  Abraham  arose  from  before  his  dead,  and 
spoke  to  the  sons  of  Heth,  saying  : 

4.  I  am  a   stranger  and  sojourner  with   you  ;  give 


SARAH   DIES.  33 

me  a  possession  of  a  burying  place  with  you,  that  I 
may  bury  my  dead  from  my  sight. 

5.  And  the  sons  of  Heth  answered  Abraham,  say- 
ing to  him  : 

6.  Hear  me,  master,  you  are  a  prince  of  God  among 
us ;  in  the  choice  of  our  burying  places,  bury  your 
dead ;  not  a  man  of  us  will  hinder  you  from  burying 
your  dead. 

7.  And  Abraham  rose  and  bowed  to  the  people  of 
the  land,  the  sons  of  Heth, 

8.  And  spoke  to  them,  saying:  If  it  is  your  mind 
that  T  should  bury  my  dead  from  my  sight,  hear  me> ' 
and  entreat  for  me,  Ephron  son  of  Zohar, 

9.  To  give  me  the  cave  of  Machpele,  which  belongs 
to  him,  which  is  at  the  end  of  his  field ;  it  shall  be 
given  me  for  its  full  value  in  silver,  for  a  possession, 
for  a  burying  place. 

10.  And  Ephron,  the  Hittite,  answered  Abraham 
in  the  hearing  of  the  sons  of  Heth,  of  all  that  enter 
into  the  gate  of  the  city,  saying  : 

11.  No,  my  master,  hear  me  ;  I  give  you  the  field, 
and  the  cave  which  is  in  it  I  give  you,  in  the  sight  of 
the  sons  of  my  people  I  give  it  to  you  ;  bury  your 
dead. 

12.  Then  Abraham  bowed  himself  before  the  peo~ 
pie  of  the  land, 

13.  And  spoke  to  Ephron  in  the  hearing  of  the 
people  of  the  land,  saying  :  If  you  will  indeed  give  it 
to  me,  I  will  will  give  silver  for  the  field  ;  take  it  of 
me,  and  I  will  bury  my  dead  there. 

14.  And  Ephron  answered  Abraham,  saying : 

15.  My  master,  hear  me ;  the  land   is  worth  four 


34  ABRAHAM  OBTAINS  A  WIFE  FOR  ISAAC. 

hundred  shekels  of  silver ;  what  is   that  between  you 
and  me  ?  bury  your  dead. 

16.  And  Abraham  heard  to  Ephron,  and  weighed  to 
him  the  silver  that  he  named  in  the  hearing  of  the 
sons  of  Heth,  four  hundred  shekels  of  silver,  current 
with  the  merchant,  [$240.] 

17.  And  the  field  of  Ephron  which  was  in  Mach- 
pele,  before  Mamre,  the  field  and  the  cave  in  it,  and 
all  the  trees  in  the  field,  [and]  in  its  borders  round 
about, 

18.  Were  conveyed  to  Abraham  for  a  possession  in 
the  sight  of  the  sons  of  Heth,  of  all  that  enter  the  gate 
of  the  city. 

19.  And  after  that,  Abraham  buried  Sarah  his  wife 
in  the  cave  of  the  field  of  Machpele,  before  Mamra, 
which  is  Hebron  in  Palestine. 

20.  And  the  field  and  the  cave  in  it,  were  conveyed 
to  Abraham  for  a  possession  for  a  burying  place  from 
the  sons  of  Heth. 

.    CHAPTER  XV.     24 :   1—57. 

Abraham  obtains  a  wife  for  Isaac  from  Syria. 

24  :  1.  And  Abraham  was  an  old  man  and  ad- 
vanced in  years,  and  Jeve  had  blessed  him  in  all  things. 

2.  And  Abraham  said  to  bis  servant,  the  elder  of 
his  house,  the  ruler  of  all  he  had,  Put  your  hand  now 
under  my  thigh, 

3.  And  I  will  swear  you  by  Jeve,  God  of  the  heav- 
ens and  God  of  the  earth,  that  you  will  not  take  a 
wife  for  my  son  from  the  daughters  of  the  Canaanites, 
among  whom  I  dwell ; 


ABRAHAM  OBTAINS  A  WIFE  FOR  ISAAC.  35 

4.  But  will  go  to  the  land  of  my  nativity,  and  take 
a  wife  for  my  son  Isaac. 

5.  And  the  servant  said  to  him  :  Perhaps  the  wo- 
man will  not  come  after  me  to  this  land  ;  shall  I  take 
back  your  son  to  the  land  from  which  you  came  ? 

6.  And  Abraham  said  to  him  :  Take  heed  to  your- 
self that  you  do  not  take  my  son  back  there. 

7.  Jeve,  God  of  the  heavens,  who  took  me  from  the 
home  of  my  father,  and  from  the  land  of  my  nativity, 
and  who  spoke  to  me  and  swore  to  me,  saying  :  To 
your  seed  will  I  give  this  land,  will  send  his  angel 
before  you,  a  ad  you  shall  take  a  wife  for  my  son  from 
there. 

8.  And  if  the  woman  will  not  come  after  you,  you 
shall  be  released  from  this  my  oath  ;  only  take  my  son 
back  there. 

9.  And  the  servant  put  his  hand  under  Abraham 
his  master's  thigh,  and  was  sworn  according  to  this 
word. 

10.  And  the  servant  took  ten  of  his  master's  camels, 
and  went ;  all  the  goods  of  his  master  were  in  his 
hand  ;  and  he  rose  and  went  to  Syria,  to  the  city  of 
Nahor. 

11.  And  he  caused  the  camels  to  kneel  at  a  well 
outside  of  the  city,  at  evening,  at  the  time  of  the  com- 
ing of  the  water-carriers, 

12.  And  said  :  Jeve,  God  of  my  master  Abraham, 
prosper  me,  I  pray  you,  this  day,  and  show  kindness 
to  my  master. 

13.  Behold,  I  will  stand  by  the  well,  and  the 
daughters  of  the  men  of  the  city  will  come  out  to  draw 
water, 


36  ABRAHAM  OBTAINS  A  WIFE  FOR  ISAAC. 

14.  And  let  it  be  that  the  young  woman  to  whom 
I  shall  say  :  Set  down  your  pail,  I  pray  you,  that  I 
may  drink  ;  and  she  shall  say,  I  will  give  your  camels 
drink  also  ;  let  her  be  the  one  whom  you  have  chosen 
for  your  servant  Isaac ;  and  by  this  let  me  know  that 
you  have  shown  kindness  to  ray  master. 

15.  And  it  came  to  pass  before  he  had  finished 
speaking,  that,  behold,  Rebecca  came  out  who  was 
born  to  Bethuel,  son  of  Milke,  wife  of  Nahor,  Abra- 
ham's brother,  and  her  pail  was  on  her  shoulder. 

16.  And  the  girl  was  of  very  fair  appearance,  a  vir- 
gin, and  man  had  not  known  her ;  and  she  went 
down  to  the  fountain,  and  filled  her  pail  and  came  up. 

17.  And  the  servant  ran  to  meet  hpr,  and  said  : 
Give  me,  T  pray  you,  a  little  water  to  drink  from  your 
pail. 

18.  And  she  said  :  Drink,  my  master  ;  and  she  has- 
tened and  let  down  her  pail  on  her  hand,  and  gave 
him  drink. 

19.  When  she  finished  giving  him  drink,  she  said  : 
I  will  also  draw  for  the  camels,  till  they  have  all 
drunk. 

20.  And  she  hastened  and  emptied  her  pail  into  the 
watering  trough,  and  ran  again  to  the  well  to  draw, 
and  drew  for  all  his  camels. 

21.  And  the  man  wondered  at  her,  and  considered, 
to  know  whether  Jeve  had  prospered  his  way  or  not ; 

22.  And  it  came  to  pass,  when  the  camels  had  fin- 
ished drinking,  that  he  took  a  nose  jewel  ot  a  half 
shekel's  weight  [137  grains]  of  gold,  and  two  gold 
bracelets  for  her  hands  ; 

23.  And  said  :  Whose  daughter  are  you?    Tell  me, 


ABRAHAM  OBTAINS  A  WIFE  FOR  ISAAC.  37 

I  pray  you ;  is  there  a  place  to  lodge  in  your  father's 
house  ? 

24.  And  she  said  to  him,  I  am  a  daughter  of  Bethuel, 
son  of  Milke,  whom  she  bore  to  Nahor. 

25.  And  she  said  to  him  :  Both  straw  and  fodder 
are  plenty  with  us,  and  there  is  also  a  place  to  lodge. 

26.  And  the  man  bowed  and  worshiped  Jeve, 

27.  And  said :  Blessed  be  Jeve,  god  of  my  master 
Abraham,  who  has  not  left  off  his  kindness,  nor  his 
truth  from  being  with  my  master;  I  was  on  the  way  and 
he  led  me  to  the  house  of  [my  master's  brother.] 

28.  And  the  girl  ran  and  told  the  house  of  her 
mother,  according  to  these  words. 

29.  And  Rebecca  had  a  brother,  whose  name  was 
Laban,  and  Laban  ran  out  to  the  man  at  the  well. 

30.  And  when  he  saw  the  nose  jewel  and  the  brace- 
lets on  the  hands  of  his  sister,  and  [heard]  the  words 
of  Rebecca,  saying :  Thus  said  the  man  to  me,  he  went 
to  the  man,  and  behold,  he  stood  by  the  camels  at  the 
well. 

31.  And  he  said:  Come,  blessed  of  Jeve,  why  do 
you  stand  without  ?  I  have  prepared  the  house  and  a 
place  for  the  camels. 

32.  And  the  man  came  to  the  house  and  ungirded 
the  camels ;  and  he  gave  straw  and  fodder  for  the 
camels,  and  water  to  wash  his  feet,  and  the  feet  of  the 
men  with  him. 

33.  And  food  was  set  before  him  to  eat ;  but  he 
said  :  I  will  not  eat  till  I  tell  my  business.  And  he 
said,  Tell. 

34.  And  he  said :  I  am  Abraham's  servant. 

35.  And  Jeve  has  blessed  my  master  greatly,  and 

3 


38  ABRAHAM  OBTAINS  A  WIFE  FOB  ISAAC. 

made  him  great,  aud  given  him  sheep,  cattle,  silver, 
gold,  men  servants,  maid  servants,  camels,  and  asses. 

36.  And  Sarah  my  master's  wife,  bore  a  son  to  my 
master  after  she  had  become  old,  and  he  has  given  him 
all  that  he  had. 

37.  And  my  master  swore  me,  saying :  Take  not  a 
wife  for  my  son  from  the  daughters  of  the  Canaanites, 
in  whose  land  I  dwell ; 

38.  But  go  to  the  house  of  my  father  and  to  my 
family,  and  take  a  wife  for  my  son. 

39.  And  I  said  to  my  master :  Perhaps  the  woman 
will  not  come  after  me. 

40.  And  he  said  to  me  :  Jeve,  before  whom  I  have 
walked,  will  send  his  angel  with  you,  and  prosper 
your  way,  and  you  shall  take  a  wife  for  my  son  from 
my  family,  and  from  the  house  of  my  father. 

41.  Then  you  shall  be  clear  from  my  oath,  when 
you  have  gone  to  my  family,  if  they  do  not  give  you. 

42.  Then  I  came  this  day  to  the  well  and  said  : 
Jeve,  god  of  my  master  Abraham,  if  it  is  now  your 
purpose  to  prosper  my  way  which  I  have  come, 

43.  Behold  I  will  stand  at  the  well,  and  it  shall  be, 
that  the  young;  woman  who  shall  come  to  draw  water, 
and  I  say  to  her,  Give  me,  I  pray  you,  a  little  water 
to  drink  from  your  pail, 

44.  And  she  shall  say  to  me,  Drink,  and  I  will  also 
draw  water  for  the  camels  ;  let  this  be  the  woman 
whom  Jeve  has  chosen  for  my  master's  son, 

45.  And  before  I  had  finished  speaking  in  my  heart 
behold,  Eebecca  came  out  with  her  pail  on  her  shoulder, 
and  went  down  to  the  well  and  drew  ;  and  I  said  to 
her  :  Give  me,  I  pray  you,  a  drink. 


ABRAHAM  OBTAINS  A  WIFE  FOR  ISAAC.  39 

46.  And  she  hastened  and  let  down  her  pail  from 
her  shoulder,  and  said :  Drink,  and  I  will  water  the 
camels  also ;  and  I  drank,  and  she  gave  the  camels 
drink. 

47.  Then  I  asked  her,  and  said :  Whose  daughter 
are  you  ?  And  she  said,  I  am  a  daughter  of  Bethuel, 
son  of  Nahor,  whom  Milke  bore  ;  and  I  put  the  nose 
jewel  on  her  nose,  and  the  bracelets  on  her  hands, 

48.  And  I  bowed  and  worshiped  Jeve,  and  blessed 
Jeve,  god  of  my  master  Abraham,  who  led  me  by  the 
way  in  truth,  to  take  the  daughter  of  my  master's 
brother  for  his  son. 

49.  And  now  if  you  see  your  way  to  deal  kindly 
and  truly  with  my  master,  tell  me ;  and  if  not,  tell  me, 
that  I  may  turn  to  the  right  hand  or  to  the  left. 

50.  And  Laban  and  Bethuel  answered  and  said  : 
The  thing  proceeds  from  Jeve ;  we  cannot  say  to  you 
evil  or  good ; 

51.  Behold,  Rebecca  is  before  you  ;  take  her  and  go, 
and  let  her  be  the  wife  of  your  master's  son,  as  Jeve 
has  said. 

52.  And  it  came  to  pass  when  Abraham's  servant 
heard  their  words,  he  bowed  himself  to  the  earth  to 
Jeve. 

53.  And  the  servant  brought  out  jewels  of  silver 
and  jewels  of  gold,  and  clothes,  and  gave  them  to  Re- 
becca, and  gave  precious  things  to  her  brothers,  and 
her  mother.  • 

54.  And  they  ate  and  drank,  and  the  men  that  were 
with  him  ;  and  they  lodged,  and  rose  in  the  morning. 
Then  he  said  :  Send  me  away  to  my  master. 

55.  And  her  brother  and  mother  said  :  Let  the  girl 


40  ABRAHAH  OBTAINS  A  WIFE  FOR  ISAAC. 

stay  with  us  some   days,  perhaps  ten  ;  after  that  she 
shall  go. 

56.  But  he  said  to  them  :  Hinder  me  not,  since  Jeve 
has  prospered  my  way,  that  I  may  go  to  my  master. 

57.  And  they  said  :  Let  us  call  the  girl  and  ask  her  . 

58.  And  they  called  Kebecca  and  said  to  her  :  Will 
you  go  with  this  man  ?     And  she  said,  I  will. 

59.  And  they  sent  away  Rebecca  their  sister,  and 
her  nurse,  and  Abraham's  servant  and  his  men. 

60.  And  they  blessed  Kebecca,  and  said  to  her :  You 
are  our  sister  ;  may  you  be  thousands  and  tens  of  thou- 
sands, and  may  your  seed  possess  the  gate  of  his  ene- 
mies. 

61.  And  Rebecca  rose,  and  her  maidens,  and  rode 
on  the  camels,  and  went  after  the  man.  And  Isaac's 
servant  took  Rebecca  and  went. 

62.  And  Isaac  went  from  the  entrance  of  Barlahi- 
rai,  and  dwelt  at  the  south. 

63.  And  he  went  out  to  meditate*in  the  field,  at  the 
approach  of  evening,  and  lifted  up  his  eyes  and  looked, 
and  behold  the  camels  were  coming. 

64.  And  Rebecca  lifted  up  her  eyes,  and  saw  Isaac, 
and  she  came  down  from  the  camel, 

65.  And  said  to  the  servant:  Who  is  that  man  that 
is  walking  in  the  field  to  meet  us  ?  And  the  servant 
said  :  That  is  my  master.  And  she  took  a  vail  and 
covered  herself. 

66.  And  the  servant  told  Isaac  all  that  he  had  done, 

67.  And  Isaac  brought  her  to  his  mother  Sarah's 
tent ;  and  he  took  Rebecca,  and  she  became  his  wife, 
and  he  loved  her ;  and  Isaac  was  comforted  for  his 
mother. 


ABRAHAM   MARRIES   KETURE.  41 

CHAPTER  XVI.     25:  1—11. 

Abraham  marries  Keture,  has  six  sons  by  her,  whom  he 
provides  for,  and  dies.     25:  1 — 11. 

25  :  1.  And  Abraham  again  took  a  wife,  and  her 
name  was  Keture. 

2.  And  she  bore  him  Zimran,  Ikshan,  Midan 
Midin,  [Midian],  Ishbak  and  Shuah. 

3.  And  Ikshan  begat  Sheba  and  Dedan,  and  the 
sons  of  Dedan  were  Assyrians,  Letushim  and  Lammim. 

4.  A  nd  the  sons  of  Midin  [Midian],  Epher,  Sepher, 
Enoch,  Abida  and  A  Idea.  All  of  these  were  sons  of 
Keture. 

5.  And  Abraham  gave  all  that  he  had  to  Isaac ; 

6.  And  to  the  sons  of  his  concubines  he  gave  gifts, 
and  sent  them  east,  from  before  Isaac  his  son,  in  his 
life  time. 

7.  The  life  of  Abraham  was  one  hundred  and  sev^ 
enty-fi ve  years ; 

8.  And  Abraham  died  in  a  good  old  age,  an  old 
man  full  [of  years],  and  was  gathered  to  his  people.) 

9.  Isaac  and  Ishmael,  his  sons,  buried  him  in  the 
cave  of  Macpele,  in  the  field  of  Ephron  son  of  Zohar 
the  Hittite,  that  was  before  Mamra, 

10.  The  field  which  Abraham  bought  of  the  sons  of 
Heth,     Abraham  and  Sarah  were  buried  there. 


CRITICAL  STUDIES  OF  THE  HEBREW 
PATRIARCHS,   GEN.  12 : 1-EX.  4 :  81, 


I.   Character  of  the  Work. 

The  Bible  begins  with  the  book  of  generations,  which 
constitutes  its  first  eleven  chapters  ;  then  follows  the 
book  of  the  patriarchs  from  Gen.  12  : 1  to  49  :  33,  where 
the  author  left  it  incomplete,  probably  arrested  by  death. 
It  should  have  had  accounts  of  Levi,  Kohath  and  Am- 
ram,  completed  after  the  same  method  as  those  of 
Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob,  and  should  have  given  us 
many  particulars  of  their  times.  Instead  of  this,  we 
have  the  extravagant  account  of  Jacob's  funeral,  indi- 
dicating  a  different  hand,  with  different  ideas  from  the 
author  of  the  preceding,  and  the  first  four  chapters  of 
Exodus,  introducing  Moses  and  the  theocracy  in  the 
style  of  the  previous  Jeve  documents. 

The  books  of  generations  and  the  patriarchs  both 
describe  the  prehistoric  times  of  the  Hebrews,  closing 
with  definite  epochs — the  book  of  generations  with 
the  death  of  Terah  in  Syria,  and  that  of  the  patri- 
archs, with  the  founding  of  the  theocracy  by  Moses  in 
Egypt,  as  related  in  the  law  of  Hezekiah,  in  715  B.  C, 
The  author  of  the  book  of  generations  makes  its 
time  2,080  years,  beginning  with  creation.  The  au- 
thor of  the  book  of  the  patriarchs  gives  us  100  years 
for  the  patriarchate  of  Abraham,  105  for  that  of  Isaac, 


CHARACTER   OF   THE   WORK.  43 

10  years  for  that  of  Jacob  in  Palestine,  and  17  years 
for  that  of  Jacob  in  Egypt,  and  dies  after  relating  the 
death  of  Jacob,  completing  a  period  of  232  years. 
The  author  of  the  next  book,  in  Ex.  12  :  40,  reports 
the  Egyptian  period,  without  defining  it,  at  430  years. 
This  would  naturally  require  to  be  reckoned  from  the 
descent  of  Jacob  to  that  country,  which  would  make 
the  entire  period  from  Abraham  75,  to  Moses  80, 
662  years.  Josephus,  however,  in  A.  J.,  2,  15,  2,  led 
the  way  in  making  the  430  years  of  Ex.  12  :  40  take 
us  back  to  the  migration  of  Abram,  and  Christian  in- 
terpreters have  followed  him  in  this.  The  author  of 
the  account  of  the  exode  appears  to  have  meant,  as  he 
says,  to  give  Isral  430  years  in  Egypt,  without  say- 
ing any  thing  of  his  residence  elsewhere.  How  little 
the  Hebrews  pretended  to  know  of  their  generation 
and  patriarchal  periods,  appears  from  those  books,  and 
how  little  their  actual  information  was,  also  appears. 
The  book  of  the  Patriarchs  is  a  work  of  genius,  and 
purports  to  be  a  history  of  the  Hebrews  from  the  time 
of  their  leaving  Syria  for  homes  farther  south  and 
west,  to  the  founding  of  the  theocracy  of  Jeve  by  Mo- 
ses in  Egypt  in  1640  B.  C.  It  reports  those  times 
neither  fully  nor  correctly.  Its  stories  are  chiefly  fic- 
tions, written  under  the  Davidic  kings,  with  no  attes- 
tation as  narratives  of  facts  ;  the  writers  do  not  give 
us  their  names,  ages,  conditions,  the  sources  of  their 
information  nor  their  authorities.  The  just  presumph 
tion,  in  view  of  all  these  facts,  is,  that  they  had  no  re- 
liable authorities  for  much  which  they  relate,  but  that 
going  back  from  600  to  more  than  1 600  years,  they 
give  us  the  little  that  was  known  of  that   remote  pe- 


44  CHARACTER   OF   THE   WORK. 

riod  by  the  Hebrews  in  their  times,  and  supplement  it 
with  large  additions  from  their  imaginations.  This 
clearly  appears  from  the  work,  which  is  mainly  one  of 
imagination. 

It  would  be  no  greater  blunder  to  interpret  Paradise 
Lost  as  a  history  of  the  rebellious  celestials,  their  mad 
misdoings  in  the  eaith  and  the  under-world,  and  the 
punishments  inflicted  on  them,  than  it  is  to  interpret 
the  accounts  of  the  Hebrew  patriarchs  as  strictly  his- 
toric and  veritable. 

But  the  general  consent  of  Christendom  for  1800 
years  to  receive  these  accounts  as  relating  only  facts, 
though  begun  in  great  ignorance,  their  acceptance  as 
such  by  nearly  all  the  colleges  aud  universities,  and 
by  church  authorities  generally,  Catholic  and  Protes- 
tant,  and  their  general  support  by  the  periodical  press, 
religious  and  secular,  furnish  a  basis  for  sophisms  in 
their  favor  so  plausible,  and  of  such  force,  even  with 
educated  men,  that  few  can  appreciate  evidence  to  the 
contrary,  however  clear  or  conclusive.  Most  accept 
the  common  opinions  because  they  are  common,  and 
have  been  so  long  and  so  reputably  accepted.  If 
common  and  reputable  faiths  were  always  correct,  it 
would  be  right  to  accept  these  as  correct  ;  but  in  the 
higher  fields  of  thought  the  common  mind  generally 
stops  short  of  recondite  truths,  and  faiths  are  gener- 
ally to  a  great  extent  loose,  uncertain  and  false. 

Besides,  depending  on  this  argument  for  faith,  is 
suspicious ;  any  opinion  that  is  correct,  is  known  to 
be  so  by  evidence,  and  the  fact  that  these  accounts  are 
not  shown  to  be  correct  by  evidence,  implies  that  there 


CHARACTER   OF   THE    WORK.  45 

is  no  evidence  to  show  their  correctness ;  if  there  was, 
intelligent  inquirers  would  find  it. 

It  is  worse  than  childish  to  cherish  the  false,  and 
refuse  to  consider  evidence  by  which  it  is  known  to  be 
so.  But  instances  of  this  daily  occur.  On  account  of 
the  great  difficulty  of  appreciating  evidence  of  false- 
hood and  delusion  where  the  falsehood  is  generally  af- 
firmed as  true,  and  the  delusion  is  in  high  credit,  we 
here  give  a  summary  of  independent  proofs  of  the 
correctness  of  our  positions  in  regard  to  this  book,  and 
ask  those  who  lean  on  the  opinions  of  the  many,  to 
examine  them  singly,  and  find  a  fallacy  in  them,  if 
there  is  one.  If  there  is  none,  intelligent  inquirers 
will  abandon  their  cherished  sophisms,  and  another 
instance  will  be  added  to  all  that  have  gone  before,  in 
which  truth,  long  ignored  and  decried,  and  opposed  by 
great  dignities  and  authorities,  is  finally  master  of  all 
fields. 

It  is  base  and  contemptible  to  impose  on  the  credu- 
lity of  the  ignorant  by  putting  forth  false  claims  in 
respect  to  any  books  to  which  they  look  for  informa- 
tion, and  it  is  in  some  degree  dishonorable  to  be  im- 
posed upon  by  any  sophistries,  however  specious. 

It  is  a  great  misfortune  to  believe  a  lie ;  and  much 
of  the  misery  of  the  world  comes  from  believing  lies. 
"We  can  neither  believe,  nor  impose  them  on  others, 
without  guilt.  Men  may  applaud  such  impostors,  but 
God  will  certainly  condemn  them. 

The  Christian  religion  puts  the  responsibility  of 
men  for  believing  the  truth  on  its  evidence,  in  the 
fore  front  of  all  its  lessons,  by  making  right  believing 
the  condition  of  all  possible   good,   and  disbelieving 


46  THE   ARITHMETICAL  PROOF. 

the  right,  of  all  evil.  Good  and  evil  are  not  condi- 
tioned on  believing  this  or  that,  independently  of  its 
evidences,  but  on  believing  intelligently  and  correctly. 
All  believing  without  evidence,  and  in  contradiction 
of  it,  is  vicious. 

1.  The  Arithmetical  Proof. 

This  was  first  developed  in  our  times  by  the  late 
bishop  Colenso,  of  the  Church  of  England,  in  Natal, 
on  the  eastern  coast  of  Africa.  His  showing  of  this 
argument  surprised  the  world,  and  attracted  for  a 
time  much  attention.  It  has  not  been,  and  can  not  be 
refuted.  It  may  be  neglected  for  a  time,  in  the  false 
faith  that  the  church  can  not  so  long  and  so  greatly 
have  misjudged  the  questions  involved,  but  it  will  yet 
command  universal  assent ;  and  the  name  of  Colenso 
will  be  had  in  honor,  when  his  detractors  will  be  for* 
gotten,  or  only  remembered  as  contributing  their  mite 
to  hinder  an  advance  of  knowledge,  led  by  Colenso. 

According  to  Gen.  46  :  27,  the  house  of  Jacob  that 
went  down  to  Egypt  and  settled  there  in  the  time  of 
Joseph,  were  seventy  souls.  Under  Moses,  215  years 
later,  according  to  Num.  1  :  46,  as  commonly  inter- 
preted, the  twelve  tribes,  exclusive  of  Levi  and  his 
sons,  numbered  an  army  of  603,550  men.  Adding 
as  many  for  the  corresponding  women,  we  have 
1,206,100  souls  ;  and  adding  as  many  more  for  chil- 
dren and  the  aged  and  infirm  of  both  sexes,  and  we 
have  1.810,650.  Such  an  increase  from  seventy  fam- 
ilies in  215  years,  and  any  thing  like  it,  is  impossible. 
The  numbers  are  too  great,  or  the  time  too  short  for 
history,  or  both  the  numbers  and  the  time  are  in  fault. 


THE   ARITHMETICAL    PROOF.  47 

Manetho,  reportiDg  on  the  subject  from  official 
records  by  the  Egyptians,  estimates  the  army  of  the 
Hebrews,  while  dominant  in  Egypt,  at  240,000  men, 
who  were  trained  and  drilled  in  a  single  encamp- 
ment. At  the  time  of  their  leaving  Egypt,  he  says 
they  were  more  than  240,000,  implying  that  as  far  as 
the  Egyptian  records  showed,  they  might  have  left 
Egypt  300,000  strong.  If  they  left  with  an  army  of 
300,000,  the  nation  must  have  exceeded  900,000,  a 
number  still  much  too  large  to  have  proceeded  from 
seventy  families  in  215  years. 

This  will  be  further  evident  if  we  compare  the  in- 
crease from  the  sons  of  Jacob  and  their  children  in 
their  Egyptian  period,  with  that  from  Abraham  to 
Jacob  at  his  descent  to  Egypt.  The  increase  from 
Abraham  in  215  years,  was  70 ;  at  the  same  rate  the 
increase  from  this  seventy  would  be  470  ;  and  if  you 
multiply  this  by  10,  you  get  only  4,700.  Instead  of 
these  small  numbers,  the  census  of  the  second  month 
of  the  second  year  from  the  exode,  Num.  1,  46,  gives 
us  603,550  from  eleven  of  the  twelve  tribes,  mustered 
into  the  army  ;  and,  according  to  Ex.  12  :  36,  the  na- 
tion marched  from  Rameses  led  by  about  600,000  foot 
[soldiers].  Such  an  increase  in  215  years  is  impos- 
sible. 

The  above  argument  is  based  on  the  interpretation 
of  the  430  years  of  Ex.  12 :  40,  as  comprehending 
the  215  years  of  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob  in  Pales- 
tine. On  the  more  probable  supposition,  that  it  ex- 
cludes them,  and  is  reckoned  from  the  descent  of  Ja- 
cob to  Egypt,  and  his  settlement  there,  the  three  genera- 
tions of  Levi,  Kohath  and  Amram  are  required  to  oc- 


48  THE   GENEALOGICAL   PROOF. 

cupy  these  430  years,  making  an  average  generation 
and  patriarchate  143 J  years,  and  these  three  genera- 
tions are  required  to  account  for  the  vast  increase  by 
which  seventy  souls  became  a  nation  led  by  an  army 
of  603,550  men.  At  the  rate  of  increase  from  Abram 
75,  to  Jacob  120,  we  should  have  Jacob  and  his  sons 
making  seventy  souls  ;  in  430  years  they  become  490 
souls,  and  in  645  years,  343,000  souls.  This  is  the 
number  to  be  obtained  from  the  seventy  souls  of  Ja- 
cob in  430  years,  instead  of  215  years.  Making  every 
third  soul  a  soldier,  the  army  with  which  it  would 
leave  Egypt  would  be  104,333J. 

On  both  suppositions,  the  leaving  of  Egypt  by  the 
Hebrews  with  an  army  of  603,550  foot-soldiers  is  an 
impossibility,  showing  that  the  facts  are  not  as  said, 
and  that  while  the  accounts  in  question  may  corre- 
spond to  the  facts  remotely  in  the  manner  of  enigmas, 
they  cannot  describe  them  historically.  As  in  geometry 
one  showing  establishes  a  proposition,  so  here  and 
everywhere  one  proof  settles  a  historic  question  ;  but, 
as  in  geometry,  many  propositions  admit  of  different 
independent  proofs,  so  it  is  here ;  and  we  proceed  to 
others. 

2.    TJie  Genealogical  Proof. 

The  period  from  Abraham  75  to  Moses  80,  is  meas- 
ured by  six  patriarchs  and  six  generations.  These 
average  in  430  years  7 If  years  each.  If  we  adopt 
the  more  correct  interpretation,  and  make  the  patri- 
archal period  645  years,  its  average  generations  and 
patriarchates  are  107J  years.  In  both  cases  our  num- 
bers are  too  great  for  history.     For  the  shorter  pe- 


THE   THEOLOGICAL   PROOF.  49 

riod  of  430  years  we  should  have  thirteen  generations 
and  twenty  or  thirty  chiefs,  and  for  the  longer  period 
of  645  years  we  should  have  19 J  generations,  and 
thirty  or  forty  chiefs.  The  work,  therefore,  is  not 
historic. 

3.  The  Theological  Proof. 

The  book  names  three  gods  acknowledged  by  the 
Hebrews  :  Olion,  the  most  high ;  Gen.  14 :  18,  19  ; 
Shaddi,  the  national  god  of  the  Hebrews  ;  17  :  1  ;  28  : 
3 ;  35 :  11  ;  and  Jeve,  12 :  1,  etc.,  who  is  at  a  later 
period  put  above  Shaddi,  but  below  Olion  ;  and  is 
accompanied  and  served  by  angels.  Shaddi  appears 
to  Abram,  and  makes  an  everlasting  covenant  with 
him,  to  be  a  god  to  him  and  to  his  seed  after  him. 
This  implies  that  he  would  not  be  equally  the  god  of 
all  men,  and  that  in  being  his  god  and  the  god  of  his 
descendants  he  was  conferring  on  him  and  them  a 
special  favor.  The  true  God  is  alike  the  God  of  all 
men  and  all  worlds,  and  is  no  respecter  of  persons. 

Shaddi  incorporates  circumcision  into  his  covenant 
with  Abraham,  an  institution  that  could  have  origin- 
ated only  among  savages. 

Jeve  first  gives  the  Abrahamic  covenant  in  Syria, 
and  repeats  it  three  times  in  Palestine,  and  the  word 
of  Jeve  gives  it  once  in  Palestine.  The  word  of 
Jeve's  covenant  is  confirmed  with  sacrifices,  but  cir- 
cumcision is  confined  to  that  of  Shaddi.  Two  differ- 
ent gods  should  not  be  reported  as  giving  the  same 
covenant. 

Jeve  and  two  other  celestials  visit  Abraham  at  He- 
bron, and  dine  with  him,  partaking  of  an  ample  feast. 


50  THE   THEOLOGICAL   PROOF. 

the  meat  being  killed  for  them  and  the  bread  baked 
after  their  arrival.  The  same  evening  the  two  ac- 
companying celestials  visit  Lot  in  Sodom,  and  eat  a 
liberal  supper  with  him.  This  is  not  the  manner  of 
God. 

After  Isaac  had  grown  to  be  a  young  man,  God 
tempts  Abraham  to  kill  him  and  offer  him  up  as  a 
burnt  offering  on  mount  Moriah  ;  and  Jeve  only  re- 
voked the  order  after  Abraham  had  bound  his  son, 
laid  him  like  a  dumb  beast  on  the  wood  of  the  altar, 
and  had  raised  the  knife  to  kill  him. 

Jeve  knows  nothing  by  omniscience,  but  judges 
from  what  he  hears  and  sees,  and  visits  places  and 
persons  to  find  out  the  facts  about  them.  This  is  not 
the  manner  of  God. 

Jeve  promises  Abraham  the  country  of  other  peo- 
ple, to  be  enjoyed  by  his  seed  forever,  and  this  prom- 
ise is  emphasized  by  repetition,  but  is  not  fulfilled.  It 
is  not  the  manner  of  God  to  make  such  promises. 

These  stories,  therefore,  are  proved  to  be  not  his- 
toric by  their  theology.  A  correct  theology  has  any 
number  of  celestials,  but  only  one  God,  the  supreme 
father  and  sovereign  of  all  nations,  races  and  worlds. 
This  God  is  like  the  light  and  heat  medium,  equally 
present  in  all  places,  and  at  all  times,  and  can  not  be 
exhibited  under  limited  forms,  human  or  animal.  Nor 
can  God  withdraw  himself  from  any  of  his  creatures  ; 
all  live  in  him. 

The  human  form  is  as  inadequate  to  represent  God 
as  that  of  an  ox,  elephant  or  eagle.  The  nearest  re* 
semblance  to  him  physically,  of  which  we  have  any 
knowledge,  is  the  light  and  heat  medium.    God  speaks 


THE  ABRAHAMIC   COVENANTS.  51 

to  men  through  men,  animals  and  the  universal 
world,  but  he  speaks  only  as  God,  not  as  a  man  or 
animal,  and  uses  no  animal  or  human  signs  of  ideas. 

A  further  proof  from  contemporary  history,  we  re- 
serve for  Study  III. 

2.    The  Abrahamic  Covenants. 

These  occupy  a  prominent  place  in  the  history  of 
the  Caucasians,  and  are  among  the  most  extraordinary 
and  successful  impositions  ever  devised.  A  covenant 
is  a  mutual  agreement  between  parties  ;  the  party  giv- 
ing it,  is  called  the  party  of  the  first  part,  and  the 
party  receiving  it,  the  party  of  the  second  part.  Na«> 
tional  and  household  gods  were  imagined  by  the  an- 
cients often  to  visit  men,  and  hold  conversations  with 
them.  The  Hebrews  never  imagined  Olion  their  most 
high,  to  pay  such  visits,  or  in  any  way  to  communicate 
with  them  ;  hence  it  is  well  said  in  John  1 :  18,  God, 
meaning  the  most  high,  none  ever  saw  ;  the  only  be- 
gotten son,  who  is  in  the  bosom  of  the  father,  de- 
clared [his  messages.] 

The  covenants  given  to  Abraham  are  mainly  prom- 
ises, first  by  Shaddi,  then  by  Jeve,  as  to  what  they 
would  do  for  him  and  his  seed. 

There  are  six  of  them  identical  in  substance,  and 
nearly  so  in  form.     The  law   of  Asa  in  950  B.  C. 
found  only  that  given  by  Shaddi,  in  Gen.  17  :  1 — 22, 
and  had  it  renewed  to  Jacob  after  his  return  with  his 
family  from  Syria  to  Palestine,  in  Gen.  35  :  9 — 15. 

The  law  of  Hezekiah  in  715  B.  C,  omitted  these, 
and  gave  instead  of  them,  four  covenants  of  Jeve  with 
Abraham,  the  first  in  Syria,  in  Gen.  12:  1;  the  see- 


52  THE   ABRAHAMIC   COVENANTS. 

ond  in  Shechem,  Gen.  12  :  7 ;  the  third  at  Bethel, 
13  :  5 — 18,  and  the  fourth  at  Mount  Moriah,  22 : 
16 — 18  ;  and  had  these  covenants  repeated  to  Jacob 
on  his  way  to  Syria  to  escape  from  his  angry  brother, 
in  Gen.  28  :  10—15. 

The  law  of  Josiah  in  623  B.  C,  arranged  all  these 
covenants  in  a  single  series,  interpolating  Shaddi's  cov- 
enant with  Abraham,  after  the  third  of  Jeve,  in  Gen. 
17  :  1 — 22 ;  Shaddi's  covenant  with  Jacob  after  that 
of  J  eve  with  him,  in  Gen.  35  :  9 — 16,  and  confound- 
ing the  two  gods  in  the  story  of  the  first  of  these  cov- 
enants by  making  Jeve,  in  Gen.  17:1,  say,  I  am  Al 
Shaddi,  which  he  was  not. 

Ezra  in  450  interpolated  this  series  with  the  visit 
and  covenant  of  the  word  of  Jeve,  in  Gen.  15 :  1 — 31. 
When  the  covenant  of  Shaddi  appeared  in  950  B.  C. 
under  Asa,  its  promises  had  been  fulfilled  up  to  that 
time.  As  the  nation  construed  its  acquisitions,  all  of 
them  were  gifts  of  Jeve,  the  supposed  superior  of 
Shaddi,  and  nothing  appeared  to  threaten  the  nation 
with  its  later  disasters.  From  small  beginnings  it  had 
grown  to  be  great  and  powerful.  Tyre,  Sidon  and 
Gaza  continued  to  be  independent,  but  were  on  terms 
of  friendship  with  the  Hebrews,  and  other  Palestinian 
states  had  been  destroyed.  When  the  covenants  of 
Jeve  were  made  to  supersede  those  of  Shaddi,  under 
Hezekiah,  in  715  B.  C,  the  Davidic  kings  still  reigned 
at  Jerusalem,  and  a  glorious  future  was  expected  by 
them  to  continue  without  end.  The  then  recent  fall 
of  the  northern  kingdom  removed  from  Judah  a  dan- 
gerous enemy,  and  was  not  greatly  deplored  by  that 
sister  kingdom  ;  it  left  more  room  for  them. 


THE   ABRAHAMIC   COVENANTS.  53 

But  so  far  from  obtaining  their  country  by  gift  of 
Jeve,  they  obtained  it  by  violence  and  murder.  The 
claim  that  Jeve  ordered  them  to  take  it  by  violence 
and  slaughter,  is  either  false,  invented  in  later  times, 
or  an  imposition  practiced  on  the  nation  at  the  time, 
by  its  priests  and  prophets.  God  never  authorizes 
men  to  acquire  property  by  injustice,  still  less  by  mur- 
der; and  the  pretence  of  his  doing  it  is  an  impious  fraud. 
The  atrocities  that  attended  the  conquest  of  Palestine 
by  the  Hebrews,  were  heart-rending,  and  the  nation 
before  its  bloody  drama  was  finished,  paid  in  rivers  of 
its  blood  for  the  blood  of  the  Palestinians  which  it 
wickedly  shed.  So  true  is  the  Christian  maxim  at- 
tributed to  Jesus  :  He  that  takes  the  sword  shall  per- 
ish by  the  sword. 

The  terrible  reverses  of  the  Hebrews  beginning  with 
the  fall  of  the  northern  kingdom  in  722  B.  C,  and 
that  of  Judah  in  588  B.  C,  are  among  the  most  amaz- 
ing that  ever  befell  a  people,  and  extend  over  more 
than  2000  years. 

The  pretended  promises  concerning  Palestine  have 
failed  entirely,  since  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem  by 
Titus  in  70  A.  D.,  and  besides  this  are  such  as  God 
could  never  make.  On  this  ground  alone  we  safely 
conclude  that  he  never  did  make  them  ;  but  they  are 
further  shown  to  be  fraudulent  by  their  non-fulfill- 
ment. Forged  notes  from  men  may  sometimes  be 
honored,  but  forged  covenants  for  God  are  sure  to 
come  to  grief. 

God  gives  lands  and  other  property  by  laws  of  jus- 
tice. Those  who  improve  unclaimed  lands,  acquire 
rights  in  them  to  the  extent  of  the  exchangable  value 
4 


54  THE   ABRAHAMIC   COVENANTS. 

given  theni  by  their  improvements.  These  rights  are 
bought  and  sold  in  all  honest  purchases  and  sales  of 
lands.  Isral  obtained  Palestine  by  slaughtering  and 
enslaving  its  possessors,  and  plundered  all  their  stores. 
The  laud  and  its  stores  were  no  more  given  them,  than 
the  booty  of  Bedouin  Arabs,  obtained  by  the  murder 
of  its  owners,  is  given  them,  Pirates  and  robbers 
take  their  spoils  in  violation  of  divine  laws,  and  ac-. 
quire  no  just  rights  in  them.  It  was  so  with  the  taking 
of  Palestine  by  Isral. 

Aecordiug  to  Gen.  17:  9 — 14,  Shaddi  enjoined  cir- 
cumcision early  in  the  Abrahamic  period,  to  be  ob- 
served forever.  The  Hebrews  abandoned  sacrifices, 
which  were  also  to  continue  forever,  after  the  destruc- 
tion of  Jerusalem  in  70  A.  D.,  but  with  the  Moham- 
medans, continne  to  practice  circumcision.  Jesus  by 
abandoning  all  these  and  other  Jewish  rites,  signified 
to  all  ages  and  nations,  his  rejection  both  of  the  Abra<- 
hamic  covenants  and  Mosaic  laws,  and  based  his  re- 
ligion on  laws  universal  and  really  divine,  all  of  which 
are  included  summarily,  in  justice,  mercy,  love,  purity, 
and  truth. 

No  messengers  from  another  planet  are  required  to 
bring  us  these  laws,  and  no  thunders  from  Sini  to 
proclaim  them.  We  have  them  as  perfectly  by  intu- 
ition and  reasoning  from  our  experience  and  that  of 
others,  as  if  they  were  brought  by  celestials  from  dis- 
tant planets,  or  proclaimed  by  thunders  from  every 
mountain  and  hill  in  the  world.  They  underlie  all 
that  is  good  and  noble  in  human  character,  and  the 
contrary  doings  involve  all  'that  is  possible  of  the  evil 
and  odious. 


THE   ABRAHAMIC   COVENANTS.  55 

According  to  Herodotus,  circumcision  began  with 
the  Egyptians  or  Ethiopians,  and  was  received  from 
them  by  several  other  nations.  Sesostris  third  king 
of  the  twelfth  dynasty,  more  than  six  hundred  years 
before  the  beginning  of  the  Abrahamie  period,  gave  it 
to  nations  conquered  by  him.  The  Greeks  were  early 
acquainted  with  it,  and  held  it  in  detestation.  Among 
the  Egyptians  it  was  confined  to  the  priests ;  of  the 
mummies,  not  one  in  fifty  bears  this  mark. 

The  institution  is  based  on  the  principle  of  marking 
animals  by  cropping  the  ear,  and  originated  when  men 
were  without  clothes  and  without  shame ;  it  could  not 
have  originated  later. 

Jesus  abandoned  all  ceremonies  for  right  doings, 
and  insisted  on  these  alone.  He  put  his  disciples  on 
the  sole  pursuit  and  practice  of  the  good.  But  after 
his  death,  Peter,  John  and  others  imperfectly  educated 
in  his  system,  and  bred  from  their  childhood  in  that 
of  the  Pharisees,  receded  from  his  most  advanced  po- 
sitions, preached  Judaism  entire,  with  Jesus  as  its 
Jeve  in  the  flesh,  till  his  death,  had  him  resume  the 
flesh  on  the  third  day,  and  ascend  with  it  to  heaven, 
a  natural  impossibility,  and  promised  his  return  in  a 
few  years  to  complete  the  program  of  an  earthly  king- 
dom with  Jerusalem  for  his  capital,  the  Jews  for  his 
priests,  and  the  whole  world  for  his  subjects. 

Peter's  experiment  with  this  system  was  begun  in 
A.  D.  33  ;  in  44,  he  went  to  Asia  Minor  and  labored 
there  about  six  years ;  in  50,  he  went  to  Rome  and 
founded  the  church  there  on  a  Judaic  platform. 

Paul  entering  the  school  of  Jesus  at  Damascus  a 
year  or  two  after  Peter  began  his  departure  from  the 


56  THE   ABRAHAMIC   COVENANTS. 

scheme  of  Jesus  at  Jerusalem,  persisted  in  rejecting 
circumcision  ;  but  after  some  years  admitted  baptism, 
and  instituted  the  Lord's  Supper.  Baptism  with  him 
was  at  first  optional.  In  58  A..  D.,  when  he  had  been 
twenty-three  years  in  the  field,  he  says  in  1  Cor. 
12 :  14,  in  regard  to  baptism,  writing  to  a  large 
church  which  he  founded  a  few  years  before,  I  thank 
God,  I  baptized  none  of  you  but  Crispus,  Gaius  and 
the  house  of  Stephanas;  17,  For  Christ  sent  me  not 
to  baptize,  but  to  evangelize.  According  to  this,  con- 
verts were  evangelized  without  being  baptized,  and 
baptism  was  an  exceptional  and  not  a  general  ordi* 
nance  of  Paul's  Christionity  at  this  time. 

Paul,  however,  in  1  Cor.  15  :  29,  refers  to  baptizing 
for  the  dead  as  a  Christian  rite,  and  in  Rom.  6  :  3-61, 
has  Christians  buried  with  Christ  by  baptism  into 
death,  to  walk  in  newness  of  life. 

In  the  letter  to  the  Galatians  a  few  years  before, 
baptism  is  not  mentioned,  and  all  that  is  required  is 
walking  in  the  spirit.  Jesus  required  this  and  noth- 
ing more. 

The  Quakers,  therefore,  are  right  in  rejecting  all 
ceremonial  institutions,  as  both  anti-spiritual  and  anti- 
Christian.  The  little  success  of  their  movement,  is 
owing  to  fatal  mistakes  connected  with  its  truths,  and 
to  their  rejecting  a  professional  ministry.  If  there 
was  a  single  story  or  two,  or  any  number  of  stories  to 
be  rehearsed,  as  some  imagine,  or  a  few  traditionary 
creeds  to  be  kept  along  by  church  authority,  a  profes.* 
sional  ministry  might  be  spared ;  the  books  relating 
the  stories  and  containing  the  creeds  might  suffice. 
But  the  church  is  a  school  of  the  highest  learning  and 


THE    ABRAHAMIC   COVENANTS.  57 

culture,  and  is  designed  to  aid  men  in  fighting  the 
battles  of  life,  against  all  perils.  Every  age  has  ne- 
cessities never  felt  before.  No  books  or  lessons  of  the 
past  can  ever  meet  all  the  needs  of  the  present,  and 
sound  religious  faiths  leave  the  old  creeds  far  behind. 
Theology  is  as  progressive  as  the  other  sciences,  and 
its  advances  require  to  be  continually  received  and 
taught.  God,  the  universe  and  men,  have  occupied 
all  past  ages  in  their  study  and  exposition,  and  will 
occupy  ages  more.  The  pastor  of  a  church  has  a  task 
in  ministering  to  his  charge,  both  in  the  public  ser- 
vices of  the  Sabbath  and  at  other  times,  the  demands 
of  which  are  not  exceeded  by  those  of  any  of  the 
learned  professions.  They  require  professional  teach- 
ers as  much  as  colleges  and  universities.  The  design 
of  the  churches  is  to  elevate  the  toiling  millions,  and 
give  them  at  the  least  expense  of  time  and  money,  the 
means  of  the  highest  and  best  culture  of  their  times. 
To  do  this  without  a  professional  ministry  is  impossi- 
ble ;  and  the  little  success  of  the  Quakers  with  the 
exclusive  possession  of  some  of  the  most  sublime  posi- 
tions ever  taken  by  man,  is  an  unanswerable  argument 
in  favor  of  a  professional  ministry. 

It  seems  strange  to  us  that  the  Quakers  do  not  per* 
ceive  their  mistake  in  rejecting  a  professional  ministry 
and  correct  it.  They  are  abundantly  able  to  do  it,  and 
with  this  and  some  other  equally  obvious  corrections, 
they  would  become  directly  one  of  the  great  powers  of 
the  world. 

Peter  and  Paul  were  heads  of  independent  schools 
of  Christianity,  and  were  mutually  hostile,  from  36  to 
59  A.  D.,  twenty-three  years,  when  Paul  accepted  bap- 


58  THE   ABRAHAHIC  COVENANTS. 

tism  as  an  essential  in  place  of  circumcision,  and  Peter 
abandoned  the  other  Jewish  rites.  The  two  schools 
from  this  time  were  consolidated,  and  took  the  name 
of  Catholics.  No  gospel  was  written  till  nearly  a 
hundred  years  after  this  arrangement,  and  those  then 
written  conformed  to  the  Catholic  system  as  inaugu- 
rated by  Peter  and  Paul  in  59  A.  D. 

The  story  of  the  baptism  of  Jesus  by  John,  makes 
no  appearance  in  the  New  Testament  letters.  It  first 
appears  near  the  middle  of  the  second  Christian  cen- 
tury in  the  gospel  according  to  Mark,  and  is  copied 
from  it  in  the  other  gospels.  The  baptism,  the  prodigy 
connected  with  it,  and  John's  testimony  to  Jesus  as 
the  Messiah,  are  all  fictions  of  the  second  century,  in- 
vented in  conformity  to  a  false  theory  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion  borrowed  from  the  Pharisees.  Jesus  left 
John  entirely  ;  John  upheld  and  intensified  Judaism, 
Jesus  discarded  it;  John  mortified  the  body  with  se- 
vere fasting,  as  an  enemy  to  be  killed  to  save  the  soul; 
Jesus  honored  and  cheiished  the  body,  and  emancipa- 
ted souls  from  vices  and  sins.  John  proclaimed  the 
kingdom  of  Jeve  as  predicted  by  Malachi,  Daniel  and 
others,  as  at  hand ;  Jesus  preached  the  reign  of  God 
as  universal  and  eternal.  John's  delusion  has  misled 
many,  and  after  prevailing  1800  years  is  surely  pass- 
ing away,  while  the  truth  declared  by  Jesus  is  on  its 
way  to  the  conquest  and  redemption  of  the  world,  aud 
to  the  glory  and  rejoicing  of  the  church. 

Paul  accepts  Jesus  as  the  Hebrew  god  Jeve  in  the 
ffesh,  not  the  Supreme,  but  his  son  ;  and  has  him  set 
aside  the  Jewish  law  as  a  work  of  angels,  who  framed 
it  with  a  sinister   purpose  to  mislead    men  instead  of 


THE   ABRAHAMIO   COVENANTS.  59 

holding  them  always  to  the  right  and  good.  This  is 
signified  by  Gal.  3  :  19,  20.  With  this  absurd  theory 
Paul  fought  Peter,  Cephas  and  all  who  adhered  to  Ju- 
daism, twenty^three  years,  till  he  wrote  bis  letter  to 
the  Romans.  In  this  he  finds  no  fault  with  the  Jew- 
ish law  or  its  framers,  but  gets  our  release  from  it  by 
being  baptized  into  the  death  of  Jesus,  through  which 
we  are  counted  as  having  died  with  him  and  passed 
beyond  its  jurisdiction,  as  all  the  dead  have  done. 

Paul  followed  the  mystic  method  of  the  other  Phar- 
isees of  his  time  in  giving  the  Abrhamic  covenants 
two  senses,  a  natural  sense,  which  was  the  only  true 
one,  and  a  higher  spiritual  sense  which  was  assumed 
arbitrarily  to  support  the  equally  false  assumption  of 
their  divine  character.  Jesus  found  no  such  sense  in 
the  Abrahamic  covenants,  nor  in  any  other  of  the  He- 
brew documents  claimed  as  divine. 

Paul  in  Gal.  3  :  1 — 4  :  10,  has  Jesus  set  aside  the 
Mosaic  law,  as  a  son  of  God  and  superior  of  the  an- 
gels who  ordered  it  and  gave  it  by  Jeve  to  Moses. 
This  is  highly  figurative,  and  proceeds  on  the  assump- 
tion that  Jesus  by  his  death  entered  the  spirit  world 
both  of  infernals  and  celestials,  which  he  could  not 
enter  otherwise. 

In  Gal.  3:19,  Paul  says,  Why  was  the  law  given? 
It  was  added  to  [the  Abrhamic  scheme]  by  hand  of 
a  mediator  [Jeve]  ordered  by  angels,  Charin  for  the 
sake  of  the  transgressions  [of  which  it  became  the  oc- 
casion] till  the  seed  came  to  whom  the  promise  was 
made. 

The  above  is  mistranslated  in  common  versions.  Paul's 
assertion  is  that  it  was  viciously  to  multiply  transgres- 


60  THE   ABRAHAMIC   COVENANTS. 

sions.  Theodoret  among  the  ancients,  and  Bloomfield 
and  other  moderns  make  Moses  this  mediator,  contrary 
to  the  Pentateuch  accounts  on  the  subject,  in  which 
the  ordering  angels  never  appear,  and  Jeve  alone  acts 
for  them.  Where  Paul  finds  his  angels  by  whom  the 
law  was  ordered  he  does  not  say.  Now  according  to 
Paul,  he  acts  against  them,  and  in  the  person  of  Jesus 
is  exalted  by  the  father  to  be  a  sovereign  over  them, 
because  they  executed  their  trusts  so  badly. 

Stephen  is  made  to  say  in  Acts  7  :  53,  that  the  He- 
brews received  the  law  for  ordinances  on  orders  of 
angels  and  did  not  keep  it.  This  passage  is  obscure, 
but  its  only  consistent  sense  is  that  which  we  give 
it,  and  this  agrees  with  Gal.  3 :  19,  where  Paul 
says  the  law  was  ordered  by  angels,  and  implies  that 
God  had  no  hand  in  ordering  it,  because  the  mediator 
Jeve  represented  many,  and  God  is  one. 

In  Gal.  4 :  1,  2,  Paul  makes  subjection  to  the  Jew- 
ish law,  that  of  an  heir  during  his  minority  to  guar- 
dians and  stewards  ;  and  in  verses  4  and  5,  has  the 
god  send  his  son  when  we  came  to  be  of  age,  and  re^ 
deem  us  from  the  Stoicheia,  constellations,  the  twelve 
signs  of  Zodiac,  that  we  may  be  sons  of  God,  and  not 
of  the  constellations.  Paul  here  identifies  the  twelve 
constellations  of  the  Zodiac  with  the  angels  that  or- 
dered the  Jewish  law,  and  has  Jesus  redeem  us  from 
them. 

This  argument  is  abstruse  and  has  been  accepted  as 
profound  on  the  credit  of  its  author,  by  thousands  that 
understood  no  part  of  it  but  the  couclusion  against  the 
Jewish  law.  It  misrepresents  the  constellations,  the 
Christian  religion,  and  the  dealings  of  God  with  men. 


HISTORY   OF   THE   HEBREWS.  61 

All  men  are  sons  of  God  by  creation  and  never  had 
any  other  master.  The  constellations  are  as  far  from 
having  ordered  the  Jewish  law  as  the  Alps  and  Andes 
or  the  Rocky  Mountains  of  North  America. 

3.  History  and  Chronology  of  the  Hebrews  in  their  Pa~ 
triarchal  period. 

The  period  represented  by  the  patriarchs  begins 
with  the  migration  of  the  Hebrews  from  Syria,  and 
represents  them  by  Abram,  who  migrates  from  Syria 
to  Palestine  at  the  age  of  seventy-five,  and  sojourns 
there  a  hundred  years,  when  he  is  succeeded  by  Isaac 
at  seventy-five,  who  sojourns  there  a  hundred  and 
five  years.  Jacob  and  Esau  are  born  when  their  father 
is  sixty,  Gen.  25  :  26,  and  Jacob  succeeds  to  the  pa- 
triarchate in  Palestine  at  a  hundred  and  twenty,  at 
his  father's  death ;  E?au  founds  and  rules  the  kindred 
nation  of  the  Edomites. 

Before  this  Jacob  goes  back  to  Syria  ;  after  seven 
years  in  that  country  marries  two  sisters,  and  in  the 
next  thirteen  years,  Gen.  31  :  88,  has  eleven  sons  and 
one  daughter  by  his  wives  and  their  two  maid  ser- 
vants. The  last  son  born  in  Syria  was  Joseph,  Gen. 
30 :  24,  Joseph  is  thirty  years  old  when  he  stands 
before  Pharoe,  Gen.  41 :  46  ;  and  Jacob  at  a  hun- 
dred and  thirty  goes  down  to  Egypt,  in  the  second 
year  of  the  famine,  when  Joseph  is  thirty-nine,  Gen. 
45:  11. 

According  to  this,  Joseph  was  born  when  his  father 
was  ninety-one,  and  all  the  eleven  sons  were  born  when 
he  was  between  seventy-eight  and  ninety-one.  It  fol- 
lows that  Jacob's  flight  to  Syria   twenty  years  before 


62  HISTORY   OF   THE   HEBREWS. 

he  left  it,  was  at  the  age  of  seventy- two,  when  his 
father  was  a  hundred  and  thirty-two,  and  at  his  re- 
turn to  Palestine  after  an  absence  of  twenty  years,  he 
and  Esau  his  twin  brother,  were  ninety- two. 

This  chronology  is  too  extravagant  for  history  ;  but 
it  is  continuous,  making  two  hundred  and  fifteen  years 
from  the  migration  of  Abraham  from  Syria  to  Pales- 
estine  to  that  of  Jacob  from  Palestine  to  Egypt.  Ja- 
cob sojourns  seventeen  years  in  Egypt,  and  is  suc- 
ceeded by  Levi  his  third  son  by  Leah,  born  appa- 
rently in  the  third  year  after  his  marriage,  when  his 
father  was  eighty-one,  which  makes  him  sixty-six  at 
his  father's  death,  and  gives  him  a  patriarchate  of 
seventy-one  years,  leaving  a  hundred  and  twenty- 
two  years  to  be  divided  between  Kohath  and  Amram* 
We  divide  this  equally,  giving  them  sixty-one  years 
each.  Kohath  dies  at  a  hundred  and  thirty- three, 
and  Amram  at  one  hundred  thirty-seven. 

Amram  makes  no  appearance  at  the  founding  of 
theocracy,  and  his  death  was  probably  the  occasion  of 
the  recall  of  M;>ses  to  Egypt,  when  a  successor  was  to 
be  appointed.  Aaron  was  entitled  to  succeed  his  father 
from  priority  of  birth,  but  Moses  was  the  ablest  and 
most  experienced  in  civil  and  military  affairs,  and 
takes  precedence  of  his  older  brother.  But  instead  of 
following  in  the  track  of  the  previous  chiefs,  Moses 
changes  the  government  to  a  theocracy,  in  which  he 
serves  as  judge,  and  Aaron  as  priest. 

The  author  of  the  history  of  the  exode  tells  us  in 
Ex.  12 :  40,  that  rhe  sojourning  of  the  sons  of  Isral 
in  Egypt  was  four  hundred  and  thirty  years,  which 
following  the  method  of  Josephus  in  bis  antiquities  of 


HISTORY   OF   THE   HEBREWS.  63 

the  Jews,  in  93  A.  D.,  interpreters  explain  as  taking; 
us  back  to  the  migration  of  Abram  and  including  the 
Palestinian  period.  On  the  contrary,  the  author  of 
this  notice  ignores  the  accounts  of  the  sojourning  of 
Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob  in  Palestine,  doubtless 
aware  of  their  fictitious  character.  The  sons  of  Isral 
went  down  to  Egypt  and  sojourned  there  when  their 
reputed  father  was  a  hundred  and  thirty  years  old, 
and  the  time  of  their  sojourning  there,  according  to 
Ex.  12 :  40,  was  four  hundred  and  thirty  years. 
Having  misled  both  Jews  and  Christians  by  reducing 
the  Egyptian  period  of  the  Hebrews  from  four  hundred 
and  thirty  years  to  two  ^hundred  and  fifteen  in  his 
antiquities  of  the  Jews,  in  his  work  against  Apion, 
written  seven  years  later  in  100  A.  D.,  when  he  was 
sixty- three,  he  gives  an  account  of  that  period  from 
Manetho,  making  it  much  longer.  His  findings  as 
reported  in  his  last  work  are  as  follows  : 

In  Apion  1  :  14,  he  says,  Manetho  was  by  birth  an 
Egyptian,  but  made  himself  master  of  Greek  learning. 
He  wrote  the  history  of  his  country  in  Greek,  trans- 
lating it  from  their  sacred  records. 

In  his  second  book  he  writes  concerning  us  as  fol- 
lows :  I  will  set  down  his  very  words,  as  if  to  bring 
him  into  court,  for  a  witness. 

We  had  a  king  whose  name  was  Timaus  [the  last 
king  of  the  14th  dynasty] ;  under  him  God  was 
against  us,  and  it  came  to  pass,  I  know  not  how,  that 
men  of  ignoble  birth  from  the  east,  made  an  expedi- 
tion into  our  country,  and  became  masters  of  it  with- 
out our  hazarding  a  battle. 

When  they  had   our  rulers  in  their   power,  they 


64  HISTORY   OF   THE   HEBREWS. 

burned  our  cities,  demolished  the  temples  of  the  gods, 
killed  some  and  enslaved  some.  At  length  they  made 
one  of  themselves,  whose  name  was  Salatis,  king.  He 
lired  at  Memphis,  put  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt  under 
tribute  and  established  garrisons  at  suitable  places. 
He  aimed  chiefly  to  protect  the  eastern  districts,  fore- 
seeing that  the  Assyrians  who  were  then  dominant, 
would  attack  them.  Finding  in  the  Saite  Nome  a  city 
on  the  Bubastic  channel  called  Avaris,  [Hebrais],  he 
rebuilt  it,  put  strong  walls  round  it,  and  put  in  it  a 
garrison  of  240,000  men. 

Salatis  came  there  in  the  summer  to  gather  his  grain 
pay  and  train  his  soldiers,  and  impress  foreigners  with 
fear. 

The  dynasty  founded  by  this  king  is  the  15th  ;  it 
is  reported  by  Josephus  and  Africanus. 

By  Josephus.  By  Africanus. 

Kings,  Years,  m. 

1.  Salatis, 13         Saitis, 19 

2.  Beon, 44         Benon, 44 

3.  Apachnas, 36-7     Pachnan, 61 

4.  Apophis, 61         Staan, 50 

5.  Ionias,  50-1     Archies, 49 

6.  Assis, 49-2     Aphobis, 1 


Total, 253-10  284 

These  six  were  the  first  rulers  among  them,  and  this 
whole  nation  was  called  Hycsos  [Hebrews],  that  is 
shepherd  kings  ;  for  Hyc  signifies  king  in  the  sacred 
dialect,  and  Sos  shepherd  in  the  common  dialect ;  but 
some  say  that  they  were  Arabs. 


HISTORY   OF   THE   HEBREWS,  65 

These  people  whom  we  have  called  kings  and  shep- 
herds, and  their  descendants,  ruled  Egypt,  [the  16th 
dynasty],  511  years. 

After  this  [under  the  17th  dynasty  of  151  years]r 
the  kings  of  Thebais  and  other  parts  of  Egypt  made 
an  insurrection  against  them,  and  there  was  a  terrible 
and  long  war.  [Still  later],  the  shepherds  were  van- 
quished and  driven  out  of  the  rest  of  Egypt  by  Alis» 
phragmuthoris  [sixth  king  of  the  18th  dynasty],  and 
shut  up  in  a  place  called  Avaris  [Hebrais],  containing 
10,000  acres,  which  they  fortified  and  defended, 
[Alisphragmuthosis  dying]  Thummosis  [called  by 
Africanus,  Touthmosis],  endeavored  to  take  the  shep- 
herds by  assault  and  siege  with  480,000  men  ;  but 
failing  in  this,  the  Egyptians  agreed  that  they  should 
leave  Egypt  and  seek  homes  elsewhere,  when  [in  1640 
B.  C]  not  less  than  240,000  foot  left  with  their 
families  and  effects,  going  through  the  wilderness  to 
Syria ;  but  from  fear  of  the  Assyrians,  they  built  a 
city  in  the  country  now  called  Judea,  large  enough  to 
accommodate  this  great  number  of  men,  and  called  it 
Jerusalem. 

After  further  reporting  the  kings  of  the  18th  dy- 
nasty and  finding  Danaus  under  its  last  king,  Jose- 
phus  says  in  Apion  1:16:  "This  is  Manetho's  account, 
and  it  is  evident  that  these  shepherds,  who  were  no 
other  than  our  forefathers,  were  delivered  from  Egypt 
393  years  [the  time  he  finds  for  the  18th  dynasty] 
before  Danaus  came  to  Argos,  and  almost  1000  years 
before  the  siege  of  Troy." 

Josephus  here  confounds  the  exode  with  the  fall  of 
the  17th  dynasty,  while  he  had  just  before  reported  it 


66  HISTORY   OF   THE   HEBREWS. 

from  Manetho  as  occurring  under  Thurnmusis,  the  son 
and  successor  of  Misphragmuthoris,  seventh  king  of 
the  18th  dynasty. 

The  oppression  began  at  the  fall  of  the  17th  dynas- 
ty, but  the  exode  was  under  the  seventh  king  of  the 
18th  dynasty. 

Julius  Africanus  bishop  of  Nicopolis  in  Palestine  at 
about  225  A,  D.  reports  the  Egyptian  period  of  the 
Hebrews  here  described  by  Josephus  as  follows  :  15th 
dynasty  of  Hycsos,  as  we  have  stated,  six  kings  284 
years  ;  16th,  thirty  kings  518  years  ;  17th,  forty-three 
kings  151  years;  total,  953  years;  the  oppression  un- 
der seven  kings  of  the  18th  dynasty,  124  years  ;  grand 
total  of  the  Egyptian  period,  1077  years. 

These  notices  show  clearly  that  the  Hebrew  accounts 
are  not  historic.  Abraham,  Isaac  and  Jacob  corres* 
pond  obscurely  to  the  15th,  16th  and  17th  dynasties 
of  the  Hebrews  in  Egypt,  not  in  Palestine,  and  are 
delineated  as  model  men.  Abraham  is  model  man  I., 
the  man  of  faith  ;  Isaac  is  model  man  II.,  the  dutiful 
son,  and  man  of  peace ;  and  Jacob  is  model  man  III., 
the  man  of  craft,  in  strong  contrast  with  his  twin 
brother,  the  father  of  the  Edomites,  whose  simplicity 
is  a  warning  against  a  like  fault.  The  removal  of 
these  model  men  from  Egypt  to  Palestine,  is  a  grave 
fault  in  the  stories  considered  as  historic  fictions.  It 
was  designed,  however,  to  help  the  claim  to  have  been 
promised  the  land  by  their  gods,  in  those  early  periods, 
a  help  that  was  much  needed  to  give  them  currency. 


HISTOEY   OF   THE   HEBREWS.  67 

The  first  seven  kings  of  the  l&th  dynasty. 

B.  C.  Years. 

1.  Amosis, 1764 25 

2.  Chebros, 1739 13 

3.  Amenophthis,,. 1726 24 

4.  Amersis, 1702 22 

5.  Misaphris, 1680 13 

6.  Misphragsmuthosis, 1667 26 

7.  Touthmasis, 1641 9 

Exode  in  1640  B.  C. 

We  find  this  date  of  the  exode  as  follows  :  Moses 
ruled  the  nation  40  years,  Joshua  25,  the  judges  after 
Joshua  supplying  30  years  for  Samuel,  480,  Saul  and 
David  80,  and  Solomon  founded  the  house  of  Jeve  in 
the  fourth  year  of  his  reign,  which  is  1012  B.  C. 
This  is  the  first  certain  date  after  the  exode.  Going 
back  from  1012  B.  C,  we  have  the  founding  of  the 
monarchy  under  Saul  in  1095  B.  C,  the  death  of 
Joshua  in  1575,  and  the  exode  in  1640. 

We  harmonize  Manetho  with  these  computations  by 
advancing  the  founding  of  the  18th  dynasty  to  1764 
B.  C;  from  the  exode  in  1640  B.  C,  and  we  go  back  ac- 
cording to  Manetho  1077  years,  to  2717  B.  C,  for  the 
migration  of  the  Hebrews  from  Syria  to  Egypt  and 
the  founding  of  the  first  dynasty  there. 

We  deem  the  Hebrew  estimate  of  the  time  of  their 
exode  reliable,  because  it  is  the  date  of  the  founding 
of  the  theocracy,  because  they  received  letters  and  be- 
gan to  commit  their  traditions  to  writing  before  the 
fall  of  the  theocracy  in  1095  B.  C,  and  because  they 
give  us  the  intervening  periods  in  specific  sums,  if  we 


68  HISTORY   OF  THE   HEBREWS. 

accept  twenty-five   years  from    Josephus  for  Joshua, 
and  supply  thirty  for  Samuel. 

Had  no  information  reached  us  concerning  their 
Egyptian  period  except  that  of  the  Hebrew  sacred 
books,  their  enigmas  would  have  no  key  for  their  so- 
lution ;  the  information  furnished  by  Manetho  makes 
them  intelligible. 

The  Egyptians  called  the  Hebrews  Hycsos,  inter- 
preted to  signify  shepherd  kings.  Hycsos  differs  no 
more  from  Hebrews  than  Sesonchis  from  Shishak, 
the  Hebrew  name  by  which  he  was  called.  The  He- 
brews are  as  clearly  meant  by  the  Hycsos  of  Manetho 
as  if  he  had  called  them  Hebrews. 

Josephus  was  a  learned  Pharisee  of  the  priestly 
caste.  It  was  a  common  error  of  the  Pharisees  to 
magnify  their  own  national  books  unreasonably  and 
disparage  the  works  of  other  nations.  The  acknowl- 
edgement of  Josephus  that  Manetho  described  the 
Hebrews  correctly  in  the  passages  above  quoted,  shows 
an  extraordinary  triumph  of  truth  over  bigotry  and 
superstition. 

Prudential  considerations  led  him  to  ignore  the  dis- 
crepancies between  the  Egyptian  and  Hebrew  ac* 
counts,  and  as  far  as  possible  to  conceal  them.  This 
appears  from  the  brevity  and  obscurity  of  his  refer- 
ences to  the  16th  and  17th  dynasties,  while  he  reports 
the  15th  and  18th  in  full. 

The  inconsideration  with  which  these  findings  of 
Josephus  have  been  set  aside  by  Christian  critics,  is 
not  creditable  to  their  scholarship.  Sound  and  thor- 
ough scholarship  is  of  modern  date  and  has  grown  out 


HISTORY    OF    THE   HEBREWS.  69 

of  the  superior  advantages   and  culture   of  modern 
times. 

Menes,  according  to  Manet  ho.  founds  his  thirty  dy- 
nasties in  5799  B.  C,  long  before  the  Hebrew  epoch 
of  creation,  and  reigns  sixty-two  years.  We  ascertain 
this  date  by  tracing  the  numbers  of  Manetho  back 
from  1640,  the  time  of  the  exode,  first  to  1764  B.  C, 
the  year  in  which  the  18th  dynasty  was  founded,  as 
shown  by  the  Hebrew  date  of  the  exode,  and  thence 
through  the  seventeen  earlier  dynasties  to  the  first. 
There  is  room  for  errors  here  ias  in  series  III.,  and 
Menes  may  have  reigned  a  hundred  years  earlier 
than  this.  Errors  are  more  likely  to  occur  by  omis- 
sion than  by  addition  or  repetition,  though  they  are 
possible  in  all  these  ways,  and  in  others. 

It  appears  from  Manetho  that  the  Hebrews  had 
their  own  government  and  military  organization  under 
the  18th  dynasty.  According  to  the  Hebrew  books, 
they  were  a  single  people  till  they  were  divided  into 
tribes  by  the  sons  of  Jacob,  eleven  of  whom  became 
heads  of  sing/e  tribes,  bearing  their  names,  while  Jo- 
seph by  his  two  sons,  Manasse  and  Aphrim,  founded 
two  tribes.  At  the  close  of  their  Egyptian  period, 
twelve  of  these  tribes  were  of  the  military  and  shep-* 
herd  caste,  and  one,  that  of  Levi,  neither  acted  as  sol- 
diers nor  shepherds,  but  found  employment  as  priests 
with  the  twelve  military  tribes,  whence  their  disper- 
sion, as  noticed  in  Ex.  49  :  7.  The  tribe  of  Simeon 
may  at  an  earlier  period  have  been  of  a  similar  caste, 
and  had  a  similar  dispersion  ;  but  on  leaving  Egypt 
they  are  numbered  with  the  military  and  shepherd 
tribes. 

5 


70  HISTORY   OF   THE   HEBREWS. 

Let  none  deem  it  a  matter  of  indifference  whether 
the  facts  are  made  to  appear  in  this  portion  of  sacred 
history,  or  the  old  impositions  and  mistakes  are  kept 
along  unquestioned.  Delusions  are  like  the  breaking 
out  of  waters,  when  they  fill  their  channels,  and  are 
prepared  to  sweep  every  thing  away  with  them,  or 
like  the  kindling  of  forest  fires,  that  small  at  first, 
may  be  extinguished  with  a  breath,  but  directly  gain 
a  force  and  fury  as  they  proceed  that  laugh  to  scorn 
the  efforts  of  thousands  to  arrest  them.  These  accounts 
begin  a  breach  that  has  deluged  the  world,  and  have 
kindled  fires  that  rage  uncontrolled  and  uncontrollable 
through  all  later  times.  We  find  a  mighty  river  of 
delusions  overflowing  and  devastating  Christendom 
with  waters  of  death ;  we  go  to  its  fountain  and  by 
correcting  that,  convert  it  into  the  river  of  the  waters 
of  life  eternal. 

Secular  scientists  are  all  agreed  throughout  the 
world,  none  gainsay  or  distrust  the  findings  of  their 
fellows.  Why  is  this  reversed  in  the  religious  field  ? 
Religious  science  is  in  no  way  different  from  secular  ; 
one  law  governs  both.  The  mischief  with  religious 
science  begins  small  and  subtle  with  the  impositions 
and  misjudgments  of  the  early  Hebrews,  in  which  the 
boldest,  and  in  some  cases  the  most  absurd  fictions  are 
accepted  for  facts.  These  begin  small,  but  grow  large 
as  they  proceed  and  give  rise  to  divisions  and  con- 
flicting sects  innumerable.  First  we  have  Jews  and 
Christians ;  then  Christians  divide  as  Catholics,  Ori- 
ental churches,  the  Greek  church  and  the  Protestants, 
Then  Protestants  divide  endlessly  ;  and  many  of  those 
divisions  and  subdivisions  are  mutually  hostile,  while 


HISTORY   OF  THE  EGYPTIANS.  71 

another  class  of  thinkers  denounce  all  religious  sci- 
ences so  called,  as  delusions  or  infected  with  fatal 
errors.  All  this  conflict  of  opinions  begins  with  the 
frauds  and  fictions  of  the  early  Hebrews  ;  and  from 
this  one  fountain  come  forth  many  streams  of  turbid 
and  unwholesome  waters.  The  world  has  long  tried 
to  correct  and  purify  the  streams  in  vain,  without  dis- 
turbing their  fountain.  We  propose  to  purify  the 
fountain,  and  leave  the  streams  to  take  from  it  only 
pure  and  healthful  waters.  This  remedy  is  possible 
and  effectual ;  no  other  is.  It  must  be  accepted  ;  it 
must  be  applied  ;  its  benefits  will  be  infinite  ;  it  will 
give  us  a  regenerated  world. 

4.  History  and  Chronology  of  the  Egyptians,  accord- 
ing to  Manetho,  in  280  B.  C,  as  reported  by  Julius 
Africanus  in  230  A.  D. 

We  introduce  thjg  in  corroboration  of  what  precedes. 

The  older  families  of  the  Caucasians  are  the  Chal- 
deans, Hebrews,  Arabs,  Syrians  and  Egyptians.  After 
these  follow  the  Celts,  Teutons,  Greeks,  Latins,  Hin- 
dus, Medes,  Persians,  Tartars,  Russians,  Georgians, 
Circasians,  Turks,  etc. 

The  great  historian  of  Egypt  was  Manetho.  He 
lived  under  the  first  two  Ptolemies,  Greek  kings  of 
Egypt,  trom  300  to  247  B.  C,  directly  after  the  times 
of  Alexander  the  Great,  of  whom  the  elder  Ptolemy 
and  founder  of  the  Egyptian  dynasty  was  a  half  broth- 
er, being  a  son  of  Philip. 

Manetho  belonged  to  the  priestly  caste  of  Egypt, 
was  versed  in  all  its  occult  sciences,  and  was  master  of 
the  Greek  language  and  literature  at  a  time  when  Al- 


72  HISTORY   OF   THE   EGYPTIANS. 

exanclria  rivaled  Athens  as  a  seat  of  the  best  Greek 
culture,  and  when  the  Greek  kings  of  Syria  and  Egypt 
were  the  lights  of  the  world. 

Manetho  wrote  the  history  of  his  country  in  Greek 
for  the  information  of  the  Greek  literati,  translating 
much  of  it  from  contemporary  annals  and  other  docu- 
ments that  were  never  before  reported  to  the  world, 
and  have  since  perished.  His  work  early  disappears, 
but  not  till  Josephus  in  100  A.  D.,  copied  portions  of 
it  relating  to  the  Hebrews,  called  by  the  Egyptians 
Hycsos  ;  and  Julius  African  us,  generally  kuown  as 
Africanus  the  African,  a  Christian  bishop  of  Nicopolis 
in  Palestine,  at  about  230  A.  D.,  copied  his  prehistoric 
periods  to  Menes,  aud  thirty  dynasties  from  Menes  to 
the  death  of  Nectanebus  II.,  in  339  B.-C,  seven  years 
before  Egypt  submitted  to  Alexander  the  Great. 

Africanus  called  his  work  Annals  of  the  World,  in 
five  books.  It  was  highly  esteemecl  by  the  ancients, 
and  portions  of  it  were  often  copied.  They  have  lost 
none  of  their  importance  by  the  unprecedented  pro- 
gress of  all  the  sciences  history  included,  in  our  times; 
but  have  rather  gained. 

Africanus  incorporated  an  abstract  of  the  work  of 
Manetho  in  his  annals,  supposing,  however,  that  Ma- 
netho's  earlier  periods  were  too  much  prolonged ; 
though  not  doubting  that  he  reported  what  he  found. 
He  accepted  the  Septuagint  date  of  creation  as  historic, 
computed  to  be  in  5799  B.  C- 

Eusebius,  bishop  of  Csesarea  and  moderator  of  the 
famous  Council  of  Nice  in  324  A,  D.,  under  Constan- 
tine,  besides  writing  a  history  of  the  church,  copied 


HISTORY   OF   THE   EGYPTIANS.  73 

the  annals  of  Africanus  at  about  330  A.  D.,  both  of 
which  are  still  preserved,  and  held  in  great  respect. 

The  work  of  Eusebius  was  copied  by  George,  a 
monk  of  Constantinople  called  Syncellus,  as  occupying 
a  cell  with  the  bishop.  Syncellus  began  his  work  in 
792  A.  D.,  at  the  Septuagint  epoch  of  creation,  which 
he  computed  to  be  5500  B.  C,  and  continued  it  to  the 
reign  of  Maximin,  when  he  died,  leaving  the  work  un- 
finished. 

Manetho,  as  we  compute  the  times  of  his  dynasties, 
begins  them  in  5799  B.  C,  300  years  before  the  Sep- 
tuagint epoch  of  creation,  and  finds  still  longer  periods 
before  Menes  than  after  him, 

No  intelligent  critic  doubts  that  in  these  prehistoric 
periods,  Manetho  reports  what  he  found,  and  judged 
to  be  reliable.  He  had  with  scholars  of  his  age,  and 
of  centuries  that  followed,  the  highest  credit  for  schol- 
arship, honesty  and  veracity.  But  his  numbers  in 
dealing  with  the  earliest  times,  were  deemed  too  large 
to  be  credible,  and  were  generally  dismissed  with  little 
consideration.  Modern  discovery  has  in  our  day  come 
wonderfully  to  his  aid. 

Animals  do  not  count;  a  counting  animal  would  be 
a  prodigy.  Counting  was  invented  by  men,  first  to 
the  number  of  10,  that  of  the  fingers  and  thumbs  of 
the  two  hands.  Then  came  adding  and  multiplying 
to  hundreds,  and  from  hundreds  to  thousands,  all  of 
which  are  multiples  10. 

Years  were  early  noted  and  couuted,  and  time  was 
naturally  estimated  in  years  and  generations.  Count- 
ing by  hundreds  and  thousands  was  reached  long  be- 
fore the  other   arts  were  perfected   that    appear  under 


74  HISTORY   OF   THE   EGYPTIANS. 

Menes  and  his  successors ;  and  the  advance  of  our 
Caucasian  fathers  from  the  counting  stage  to  that  of 
the  higher  arts,  may  have  been  very  slow. 

As  soon  as  years  were  observed  they  would  be 
counted  by  tens,  hundreds  and  thousands.  Counts 
could  be  recorded  by  points  and  lines,  as  soon  as  they 
were  reached,  and  they  only  required  to  be  made  con- 
tinuous to  measure  the  longest  periods. 

If  men  existed  in  Egypt  with  the  art  of  counting, 
and  the  knowledge  of  years,  in  30,000  B.  C,  and  with 
the  higher  arts  of  brick  making  and  pottery,  the  years 
from  that  time  may  have  all  been  counted,  and  the 
counts  kept  along  by  the  priests,  kings  and  other 
chiefs  of  those  early  ages.  It  is  conceded  by  all  com- 
petent judges  that  Egyptian  civilization  did  not  begin 
with  Menes  or  his  immediate  predecessors,  but  came 
down  from  much  earlier  periods. 

PART  I. 

Prehistoric  Periods. 

1.  The  reign  of  gods  beginning  with  the  god  of  fire, 
and  ending  with  god  Horus ;  time  indefinite. 

B.  C.  Years. 

2.  Other  gods  to  Bytis 30,725  13,900 

3.  Gods  and  heroes 16,825  1,255 

Names  not  preserved. 

4.  Human  kings 15,570  1,817 

5.  Thirty  kings  of  Memphis 13,753  1,790 

6.  Ten  kings  of  This ...11,963       ,         350 

7.  Gosts  and  heroes 11,613  5,813 

End  of  series 5,800  Total,  24,925 


HISTORY   OF   THE   EGYPTIANS.  75 

Not  a  solitary  name  of  any  inventor,  discoverer  or 
king  is  reported  from  this  long  period.  Several  of  its 
gods,  however,  are  reported  by  name,  because  they 
were  kept  along  in  following  periods. 

In  1851  Abbas  Pasha  began  to  interrogate  the  Nile 
valley  as  to  the  age  of  its  occupancy,  by  digging  and 
examining  works  imbedded  in  its  constantly  rising 
soil  ;  and  after  his  death  his  explorations  were  contin* 
ued  by  his  successor  to  1854. 

They  employed  several  able  engineers  and  sixty 
workmen  during  the  times  when  the  river  was  lowest, 
and  dug  twenty-seven  pits  in  the  parallel  of  Memphis 
in  a  line  extending  across  the  valley,  and  fifty-one 
eight  miles  above  the  apex  of  the  Delta. 

When  they  reached  water  they  resorted  to  borings 
and  went  still  further  down.  They  found  the  bottom 
of  the  alluvium  on  the  edges  of  the  valley,  but  in  the 
central  parts  it  was  in  no  case  reached. 

In  the  portions  explored,  they  found  many  human 
and  animal  remains,  but  no  remains  of  animals  that 
became  extinct  before  man  appeared.  In  some  places 
the  diggings  were  extensive  for  the  first  sixteen  or 
twenty  feet  down,  and  jars,  vases,  pots,  a  small  hu- 
man figure  of  burnt  clay,  a  copper  knife,  and  other 
articles  of  human  manufacture  were  found. 

If  the  average  rise  of  the  alluvium  was  six  inches 
in  a  century,  in  the  part  penetrated  by  one  of  the  bor- 
ings, burnt  brick  found  at  the  depth  of  sixty  feet 
were  12,0C0  years  old.  A  fragment  wTas  found  at  a 
depth  of  seventy-two  feet  near  the  apex  of  the  Delta, 
two  or  three  feet  below  the  surface  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean, where  the  deposits  are  estimated  at  two  and  half 


76  HISTORY   OF   THE    EGYPTIANS. 

inches  in  a  century,  which  makes  the  finding  30,000 
years  old. 

A  depth  of  20,000  or  30,000  years  was  explored, 
but  the  period  preceding  man's  works  was  not  reached* 

The  ablest  geologists  in  Europe  took  great  interest 
in  these  explorations,  and  the  results  agree  with  their 
findings  elsewhere,  both  before  and  since,  in  caves 
that  were  gradually  filled  on  the  margins  of  rivers 
and  seas,  carrying  back  the  age  of  man  to  a  much 
more  remote  past  than  is  reported  by  Manetho. 

Christianity  has  no  interest  in  defending  the  He- 
brew estimates  of  the  age  of  the  earth  made  under  the 
Davidic  kings,  against  her  own  testimonies.  God's 
works  speak  for  themselves,  and  refuse  to  be  dwarfed 
or  to  have  their  periods  greatly  abridged. 

It  is  no  just  disparagement  of  religion  that  ages  and 
generations  were  required  to  disengage  it  from  vicious 
prejudices  and  errors.  All  science,  religious  and  sec- 
ular, is  built  up  like  the  earth  itself,  terrace  by  ter- 
race, each  terrace  above  its  ocean  levels,  being  the 
work  of  long  ages. 

The  advance  of  knowledge  has  both  occupied  long 
periods  and  been  attended  with  long  pauses,  diver- 
sions and  retrogressions ;  but  the  force  behind  both 
the  earth  and  the  sciences  is  never  exhausted  nor  over- 
come. It  is  only  arrested  for  relatively  short  periods, 
to  be  a  final  victor  after  all  possible  defeats  ;  and  is 
thenceforward  forever  undisputed  and  indisputable, 
an  infallible  divine  law  for  human  guidance,  and  an 
unfailing  ministry  to  human  good. 

Menes  in  Egyptian  history,  follows  uncounted  gen- 
erations of  Caucasians. 


HISTORY   OF   THE    EGYPTIANS. 


77 


4.  Thirty  dynasties  in  three  seizes. 
SERIES  I. 

FOURTEEN  EARLY  DYNASTIES  BEGINNING  WITH  MENES. 


Dynasties 

Kings. 

B.C. 

Years. 

Capitals. 

1 

8 

5799 

263 

This. 

2 

9 

5536 

302 

a 

3 

9 

5234 

214 

Memphis. 

4 

8 

5020 

284 

c< 

5 

8 

4736 

218 

Elephantine. 

6 

6 

4518 

203 

Memphis. 

7 

70 

4315 

706 

u 

8 

28 

4315 

146 

U 

9 

19 

4169 

409 

Heracleopolis. 

10 

19 

3760 

185 

a 

11 

17 

3575 

59 

Diospolis. 

12 

7 

3516 

160 

a 

13 

60 

3356 

453 

« 

14 

76 

2903 

184 

Xoite. 

End  of 

series 

,  2719 

3078 

The  kings  of  Series  I.  were  largely  engaged  in 
building.  They  also  carried  on  many  predatory  wars, 
took  numerous  domestic  animals,  and  many  captives 
whom  they  held  as  slaves  and  employed  ou  their 
works.  Pyramid  building  ended  with  them.  Many 
pyramids  have  disappeared.  On  the  west  bank  of  the 
Nile  sixty-nine  remain  in  groups  through  a  distance 
of  sixty  miles.  The  largest,  that  of  Cheops  [Keops], 
stands  on  about  thirteen  acres  for  its  base,  and  is  480 
feet  high.  Next  to  the  pyramids  in  importance  are 
obelisks,  sphinxes,  palaces,  statues  colossal  and  life 
sizes,  temples  and  tombs.  The  sphinxes  are  of  both 
sexes,  mostly  males  to  represent  kings,  the  females 
represent  queens. 


78 


HISTORY   OF   THE   EGYPTIANS. 


SERIES  II. 

15th,  16th  and  17th  dynasties,  the  hycsos,   shepherd 
kings  or  hebrews. 


Dynasties 

Kings. 

B.  C. 

Years. 

Capitals. 

15 
16 
17 

6 
30 
43 

2618 
2434 
1917 

284 
518 
151 

Memphis. 

a 
it 

End  of  series,  1765         953 


The  Hebrews  did  no  building  and  no  permanent 
structures  were  erected  in  their  times.  They  main- 
tained an  expensive  standing  army,  but  seem  to  have 
had  no  foreign  wars.  They  invaded  the  country  from 
Arabia  and  were  the  superiors  of  the  Egyptians  in  the 
arts  of  war  and  the  care  of  domestic  animals. 

SERIES  III. 

THIRTEEN    LATER    DYNASTIES,  BEGINNING   WITH    THE    18TH. 


Dynasties 

Kings. 

B.  C 

Reigns. 

Capitals. 

18 

16 

1666 

287 

Diospolis. 

19 

6 

1379 

204 

a 

20 

12 

1175 

135 

ti      ^ 

21 

7 

1040 

114 

Tunis. 

22 

9 

926 

116 

Bubasti?. 

23 

4 

810 

89 

Tan  is. 

24 

1 

721 

6 

Sais. 

25 

3 

715 

40 

Ethiopia. 

26 

9 

675 

150 

Sais. 

27 

8 

525 

122 

Persia. 

28 

1 

403 

6 

Native. 

29 

4 

397 

20 

a 

30 

3 

377 

38 

a 

End  of  series,  339       1327 


HISTORY   OF   THE   EGYPTIANS. 


79 


Series  III.  opens  with  the  most  illustrious  of  all  the 
dynasties,  from  which  we  infer  that  the  Egyptians 
profited  by  their  Hebrew  masters.  Their  old  time 
arts  are  instantly  revived  and  shine  forth  in  their 
temples,  obelisks,  palaces,  statues  and  tombs  with  a 
glory  never  exceeded  before  nor  since.  Pyramid  build- 
ing ceased  before  the  Hycsos  invasion,  never  to  be  re- 
vived. 

EIGHTEENTH    DYNASTY,    DISPOLIS. 


B.C. 

Corrected. 

Yrs. 

1.  Amosis 

2.  Chebros 

1666 
1641 
1628 
1604 
1582 
1569 
1543 

1534 
1503 
1466 
1434 
1438 
1416 
1404 
1399 
1398 

1764 
1739 
1726 
1702 
1680 
1667 
1641 
1640 
1632 
1601 
1564 
1534 
1526 
1514 
1503 
1497 
1496 

25 
13 

3.  Amenophthis 

4.  Amerses , 

24 

5.  Misaphris 

6.  Misphragmuthosis 

13 

36 

7.  Touthraosis 

Exode 

8.  Amenophis 

9.  Horus 

9 

31 

37 

10.  Acherres 

32 

11.  Rathos 

12.  Chebres 

13.  Acherres , 

6 
12 
13 

14.  Armesses 

5 

15.  Ramesses 

16.  Amenopath 

1 

19 

1399 

1477 

287 

This  correction  is  made  from  the  Hebrew  date  of 
the  exode,  by  accepting  from  Joseph  us  25  years  for 
Joshua  as  judge,  and  supplying  30  for  Samuel.  Count-* 
ing  back  from  the  founding  of  the  house  of  Jeve  in 
the  fourth  year  of  Solomon,  which  was  1012  B.  C, 
we  find  the  founding  of  the  monarchy  under  Saul  in 


80  HISTORY   OF   THE   EGYPTIANS. 

1095,  the  death  of  Joshua  480  years  before,  in  1575 
B.  C,  put  by  mistake  iu  1  Kings  6  :  1,  for  the  period 
from  the  exode  to  the  founding  of  the  house  of  Jeve, 
the  exode  in  1640,  and  the  founding  of  the  18th  dy- 
nasty in  1764  B.C. 

Other  dates  of  the  founding  of  the  18th  dynasty  are 
as  follows  :  By  Eusebius,  bishop  of  Csesarea,  under 
Constantine,  330  A.  D.,  as  computed  from  the  Latin 
text  of  Jerome  1798  B.  C,  as  computed  from  the 
Armenian  text  1792  B.  C.  According  to  the  old 
chronicle  for  the  19th,  20th  and  21st  dynasties,  sup- 
plemented by  the  numbers  of  Africanus  for  the  18th. 
1801.  Bunsen  finds  the  founding  of  the  18th  dy- 
nasty in  1625  B.  C.  and  the  exode  in  1540  ;  Dr.  Hales 
finds  the  exode  in  1648,  a  much  nearer  approximation 
to  the  truth  than  1491,  generally  accepted,  to  the 
shame  of  Christendom.  Josephus  and  Eusebius  find 
the  Greek  Egyptus  and  Danaus  at  the  close  of  the 
18th  dynasty  under  the  names  of  Sethoris  and  Armais. 

The  18th  and  sixth  are  the  most  extraordinary  of 
all  the  dynasties,  though  several  produced  great  con- 
querors. 

TWENTY-SECOND    DYNASTY,    BUBASTIS. 


Corrected. 

1.  Sesonchis  [Skishak] 

2.  Osorthon 

3-5.  Three  kings,  not  named 

6.  Tacellothis 

7-9.  Three  kings,  not  named 

927 
906 
891 
866 
853 

980 
959 
944 
919 
906 

21 
15 
25 
13 

42 

811 

864 

116 

Shisbak  appears    in  1  Kings  11 :  40,  proximately 


HISTORY   OF   THE   EGYPTIANS. 


81 


in  980  B.  C,  as  giving  Jeroboam  an  asylum  in  Egypt, 
when  he  fled  from  Isral  on  account  of  conspiring 
against  Solomon  to  divide  his  kingdom.  He  appears 
again  in  1  Kings  14  :  25,  26,  as  taking  and  plunder- 
ing Jerusalem  in  the  fifth  year  of  Rehoboam,  which 
was  971  B.  C.  Assuming  that  980  was  the  first  year 
of  his  reign,  his  taking  of  Jerusalem  was  in  his  ninth 
year.  Our  correction  carries  back  the  dates  cf  this 
dynasty  53  years  to  allow  this. 

TWENTY- SIXTH    DYNASTY,    SAIS. 


Corrected. 


1.  Stephinates |  676 

2.  Nechepsos 669 

3.  Nechol 663 

4.  Psammitichus 655 

5.  Necho  II 601 

6.  Psammuthis  II 595 

7.  Uaphris. ...    589 

8.  Amosis  II 570 

9.  Psammecherites 526 


54 

6 

6 

19 

44 


6m 


686 
679 
673 
665 
611 
605 
599 
580 
536 


1501 


According  to  2  Kings  23 :  29,  Necho  II.  invaded 
Assyria,  and  while  on  this  expedition  killed  king  Jo- 
siah  at  Megiddo  in  610  B.  C.  According  to  Africanus 
he  began  to  reign  in  601,  nine  years  after  this,  and 
reigned  six  years.  If  his  invasion  of  Assyria  was  in 
the  second  year  of  his  reign,  these  dates  should  be  put 
back  ten  years,  and  we  so  correct  them. 

Inquirers  need  not  marvel  at  these  shortcomings  of 
numbers.  In  dealing  with  numbers,  omissions  are 
easy  and  almost  inevitable,  and  the  just  presumption 
is,  that  in  these  cases  the  errors  occurred  by  omissions 


82  HISTORY   OF   THE   EGYPTIANS. 

made  inadvertently,  or  from  defective  copies.  By 
substituting  the  larger  numbers  of  Eusebius  in  certain 
cases  for  those  of  Africanus,  we  get  all  the  extension 
of  time  required  ;  but  the  method  we  have  finally 
adopted  is  to  correct  Africanus  in  the  dynasties  in 
which  he  is  certainly  wrong,  and  leave  his  numbers 
elsewhere  unchanged. 

Cambyses  reigned  over  Persia  6fV  years,  that  is  a 
part  of  seven  years,  and  conquered  Egypt  in  the  fifth 
year  of  his  reign.  This  allows  him  three  years  over 
Egypt,  only  by  counting  the  fifth  and  part  of  the 
seventh  as  full  years.  Cambyses  met  with  heavy 
losses  in  Egypt,  and  revenged  them  on  the  Egyptians 
with  great  severity  and  cruelty.  His  hostility  to  the 
priests  knew  no  bounds,  and  he  stripped  the  temples 
of  their  wealth.  After  becoming  embittered  to  the 
point  of  madness  against  the  Egyptians,  he  exercised 
cruelties  against  his  Persian  subjects,  which  can  be  ac- 
counted for  only  on  the  supposition  of  lunacy.  This 
is  favored  by  the  fact  that  he  was  an  epileptic,  retain- 
ing, however,  his  great  abilities.  Providentially,  he 
died  by  an  accidental  wound  inflicted  by  his  own 
sword  early  in  life. 

Nectanebus  II.,  the  third  and  last  king  of  the  30th 
dynasty  at  Sebennys,  was  driven  out  of  Egypt  after  a 
disturbed  reign  of  eighteen  years,  by  an  aspirant  to 
the  throne  from  Mendes,  whose  name  is  not  preserved, 
and  took  refuge  in  Ethiopia.  Better  generalship  might 
have  saved  his  dynasty  seven  years  longer,  till  in  332 
submission  to  Alexander  became  a  military  necessity. 

The  Egyptians  had  fallen  far  behind  the  Greeks  in 
intellectual,  moral  and    physical  culture,  and  in   332 


HISTORY   OF   THE   EGYPTIANS.  8.3 

B.  C.j  effectual  resistance  to  Alexander  was  impossi- 
ble. Alexander  found  Egypt  again  subject  to  Persia, 
and  was  accepted  as  a  deliverer  rather  than  a  con- 
queror. While  he  lived,  the  country  was  ruled  under 
him  by  Ptolemy  Lagus,  his  half  brother,  one  of  his 
ablest  generals.  After  Alexander's  death  in  323  B.  C. 
Ptolemy  founded  the  dynasty  of  the  Ptolemies  in 
Egypt,  which  continued  300  years,  when  in  30  B.  C. 
Egypt  became  a  province  of  the  Roman  empire. 

Egypt  was  conquered  by  the  Caliph  Omer  in  640, 
by  the  Turks  in  1517,  by  France  near  the  close  of  the 
18th  century,  and  in  1801  was  restored  to  Turkey  by 
England.  In  1811  it  became  independent  under  Me- 
hemet  Ali,  but  is  now  again  a  dependency  of  Turkey, 
and  the  kedive,  its  ruler,  pays  the  imperial  govern* 
ment  at  Constantinople  §700,000  a  year,  and  has  the 
power  of  making  treaties  and  having  armies.  The 
nation  is  heavily  in  debt,  and  the  people  are  in  great 
poverty  and  misery.  The  present  population  is 
2,800,000,  chiefly  Copts,  Fellahs,  &rabs  and  Turks. 
The  Turks  bear  rule.  The  Copts  are  the  descendants 
of  the  higher  classes  of  the  ancient  Egyptians,  and 
the  Fellahs  of  the  laborers.  The  Coptic  and  Abys<* 
sinian  churches  do  little  for  the  elevation  of  their 
peoples. 

History  is  chiefly  valuable  for  its  lessons  of  the 
practical  working  of  the  divine  laws.  These  lessons 
are  yet  but  partially  mastered. 


SAWYER'S  BIBLE, 

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with   Critical  Studies. 


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2.  Abraham.    Gen.  12  :  1—25  :  11 30     " 

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4  Daniel 25     " 

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